■ Administration
Westernized writing adopted
The Presidential Office announced yesterday that it started adopting a Westernized writing format for government documents in accordance with a law which will come into effect on Jan. 1. The amended Decree Governing the Writing of Official Documents (公文程序條例), which was approved by the legislature in May, requires the writing on official documents to run from left to right. Prior to the legal revision, government documents -- except for charts, graphics and statistical reports -- ran from right to left and from top to bottom. The Cabinet approved the amendment on June 14.
■ Diplomacy
Wu Ruey-kuo says no to MAC
Wu Ruey-kuo (吳瑞國), a former director of the department of international affairs of the People First Party (PFP), has declined an offer to serve as the vice chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council for family reasons, council Chairman Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said yesterday. The former PFP official had been recommended by the Democratic Progressive Party and Joseph Wu had contacted him several times over the past month to inquire about his willingness to take the job. Wu Ruey-kuo had been offered the post because of the desire to strike a balance between various parties, his legal expertise and language ability and his good relations with think tanks in the US, Joseph Wu said. He added that Wu Ruey-kuo would have had a positive impact on the country's communication with the US on Taiwan's China policy. There is presently no other candidate under consideration for the post, Joseph Wu said.
■ Diplomacy
Taiwan gets to use name
Taiwan has been admitted to the "24/7 Computer Crime Network," an affiliate of the G8, dedicated to cracking down on computerized criminal activities, government sources said Sunday. The entry to the G8-affiliated anti-computer crime network marks yet another step forward in the government's efforts to join major international organizations and conferences, Ministry of Justice officials said. According to the officials, Taiwan was admitted to the G8 Computer Crime Network under the name "Taiwan" and was allowed to use Taiwan's national flag at its first general congress held in Rome in March this year. Taiwan is the network's 35th member country. The network's members include the US, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Australia, Brazil, Finland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. China is not a member.
■ Diplomacy
Salvadoran president to visit
Salvadoran President Antonio Saca and his wife will visit Taipei later this month to attend the second Democratic Pacific Assembly, as well as to discuss plans to boost bilateral cooperation, according to Taipei County officials. The officials said yesterday that Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) had invited Saca to visit the country when she visited El Salvador in June. Lu had been commissioned by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to head a delegation to El Salvador to attend Saca's inauguration. The officials said that Chen is expected to host a state banquet in honor of Saca and his wife next Wednesday. This will be Saca's first visit to the country since he assumed office.
GREAT POWER COMPETITION: Beijing views its military cooperation with Russia as a means to push back against the joint power of the US and its allies, an expert said A recent Sino-Russian joint air patrol conducted over the waters off Alaska was designed to counter the US military in the Pacific and demonstrated improved interoperability between Beijing’s and Moscow’s forces, a national security expert said. National Defense University associate professor Chen Yu-chen (陳育正) made the comment in an article published on Wednesday on the Web site of the Journal of the Chinese Communist Studies Institute. China and Russia sent four strategic bombers to patrol the waters of the northern Pacific and Bering Strait near Alaska in late June, one month after the two nations sent a combined flotilla of four warships
THE TOUR: Pope Francis has gone on a 12-day visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore. He was also invited to Taiwan The government yesterday welcomed Pope Francis to the Asia-Pacific region and said it would continue extending an invitation for him to visit Taiwan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs made the remarks as Pope Francis began a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific on Monday. He is to travel about 33,000km by air to visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore, and would arrive back in Rome on Friday next week. It would be the longest and most challenging trip of Francis’ 11-year papacy. The 87-year-old has had health issues over the past few years and now uses a wheelchair. The ministry said
TAIWANESE INNOVATION: The ‘Seawool’ fabric generates about NT$200m a year, with the bulk of it sourced by clothing brands operating in Europe and the US Growing up on Taiwan’s west coast where mollusk farming is popular, Eddie Wang saw discarded oyster shells transformed from waste to function — a memory that inspired him to create a unique and environmentally friendly fabric called “Seawool.” Wang remembered that residents of his seaside hometown of Yunlin County used discarded oyster shells that littered the streets during the harvest as insulation for their homes. “They burned the shells and painted the residue on the walls. The houses then became warm in the winter and cool in the summer,” the 42-year-old said at his factory in Tainan. “So I was
‘LEADERS’: The report highlighted C.C. Wei’s management at TSMC, Lisa Su’s decisionmaking at AMD and the ‘rock star’ status of Nvidia’s Huang Time magazine on Thursday announced its list of the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence (AI), which included Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家), Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) and AMD chair and CEO Lisa Su (蘇姿丰). The list is divided into four categories: Leaders, Innovators, Shapers and Thinkers. Wei and Huang were named in the Leaders category. Other notable figures in the Leaders category included Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Meta CEO and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Su was listed in the Innovators category. Time highlighted Wei’s
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