■ Cross-Strait Ties
PLA issues warning
The mouthpiece of the China's People's Liberation Army yesterday warned Taiwan against holding today's referendum, but stopped short of spelling out the consequences. The Liberation Army Daily said Pakistan, Brazil and the Czech Republic had issued statements this week warning against the referendum on boosting Taiwan's missile defenses. Overseas Chinese groups also opposed using the referendum to push for independence, the daily said. The People's Daily, the mouthpiece of China's Communist Party, and the official English-language China Daily did not mention the election or the referendum.
■ Politics
Shen gets emotional
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Shen Fu-hsiung (沈富雄) appeared to lose control yesterday in the legislature while he was talking with other DPP lawmakers about his going into hiding earlier this week. He denounced Secretary General of the Presidential Office Chiou I-jen (邱義仁) and DPP campaign spokesperson Wu Nai-jen (吳乃仁) for pres-suring him in the past few days, and he cursed. He said that he had obediently followed instructions from top party officials in the past few days, and that Chiou and Wu had sup-ported his going into hiding. He also said that the points he made in his public state-ments on Thursday were good ones, but that Chiou and Wu had asked him not to deliver the points publicly. He then said Huang Fang-yen (黃芳彥), the party's campaign finance liaison, had told him to go overseas. Shen finished by shouting vulgarities.
■ Diplomacy
Japan urged to help Taiwan
Japan should give deeper thought to its relations with China and should make Taiwan an important strategic partner, a Japanese sociologist has said. Mineo Nakajima, former president of the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, was quoted by the Sankei Shimbun daily yesterday as saying that although China has continued to adhere to its "one China" policy, it has not ruled Taiwan for a single day. Nakajima, a well-known political commen-tator, said during a speech on Thursday that Japan and Taiwan are virtually "one body of esprit de corps" and that if Taiwan were annexed by China, it would definitely result in major damage to Japan's interests. Saying that China is not a "trust-worthy" opponent, he said Beijing's increase of its defense budget by 11 percent is worrisome. He called for the government and private sector not to be fooled by China's "false impression of success."
■ Referendum
Doctor urges people to vote
Chang Shang-chwen (張上淳), dean of National Taiwan University Hos-pital's infectious diseases department, issued an
e-mail yesterday urging people to take part in the referendum. Chang became well-known during last year's SARS epidemic. He expressed concern in the e-mail for the nation's future if the referendum were to fail. If not enough people vote, he said, the international community will get the impression that voters are indifferent to China's military threat and don't care about national defense. "China will certainly make this claim. It will be even harder for Taiwan to make its way internationally, and we will be under even greater pressure and subjugation from China," the e-mail stated.
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
WEATHER Typhoon forming: CWA A tropical depression is expected to form into a typhoon as early as today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, adding that the storm’s path remains uncertain. Before the weekend, it would move toward the Philippines, the agency said. Some time around Monday next week, it might reach a turning point, either veering north toward waters east of Taiwan or continuing westward across the Philippines, the CWA said. Meanwhile, the eye of Typhoon Kalmaegi was 1,310km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, as of 2am yesterday, it said. The storm is forecast to move through central
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
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