Even in Taiwan, people can search their genealogical history via a family search Internet service provided by the Mormon church in the western US state of Utah. \nVia the FamilySearch Internet Service, headquartered in Salt Lake City, people in Taiwan can access many record collections about Chinese families to help them trace their ancestors, said Lee Hsing-yuan (李行遠), a staff member of the Salt Lake City Family History Library run by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. \nAccording to Lee, the Salt Lake City Family History Library runs the world's largest family history library, dubbed the Pedigree Resource File, which is housed in a giant weather-proof granite cave. \nBelieving that family is designed by God for eternal relationships, the Mormons started building the library in 1894 and began to store individual family records on microfilm in 1938, gradually extending the file into the largest of its kind in the world, covering family history records for almost every race around the world, Lee said. \nThe FamilySearch Service now maintains more than 4,000 family history information centers around the world, with over 2,000 of them scattered around the US. \nFamilySearch Service began in 1970 to compile Chinese family history records, which contain mostly families from Taiwan and southern China. \nIt maintains a family history information center in Taiwan, in a Mormon church in Taipei, which so far has 9,300 individual files, covering the histories of 192 families of different names, Lee said. \nIn China, FamilySearch Service maintains two family history information centers, in Beijing and Shanghai, with 100,000-odd files covering more than 11,700 families of different names, he added. \nPeople who are interested in searching their family tree can first visit the FamilySearch Internet Service to find their series numbers in the catalog, and then go to the nearest family history information center to see the details stored on microfilm, Lee said. \nMeanwhile, Lee said that if people are interested in compiling their own family tree history, they can contact Salt Lake City Family History Library for how-to software. The library also provides free instructions in Mandarin.
TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT: A US Air Force KC-135 tanker came less than 1,000 feet of an EVA plane and was warned off by a Taipei air traffic controller, a report said A US aerial refueling aircraft came very close to an EVA Airways jet in the airspace over southern Taiwan, a military aviation news Web site said. A report published by Alert 5 on Tuesday said that automatic dependent surveillance–broadcast (ADS-B) data captured by planfinder.net on Wednesday last week showed a US Air Force KC-135 tanker “coming less than 1,000 feet [305m] vertically with EVA Air flight BR225 as both aircraft crossed path south of Taiwan” that morning. The report included an audio recording of a female controller from the Taipei air traffic control center telling the unidentified aircraft that it was
A US aircraft carrier group led by the USS Theodore Roosevelt has entered the South China Sea to promote “freedom of the seas,” the US military said yesterday, as tensions between China and Taiwan raise concerns in Washington. US Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement that the strike group entered the South China Sea on Saturday, the same day Taiwan reported a large incursion of Chinese bombers and fighter jets into its air defense identification zone near the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島). The US military said the carrier strike group was in the South China Sea, a large part of which
STRATEGIC MISTAKE: Beijing’s deployment of aircraft near Taiwan proves the ‘China threat theory’ that sees it attempting to destabilize the region, an analyst said China on Saturday and yesterday sent a record number of military aircraft into the nation’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ), in what analysts said was an attempt to flex its military might for US President Joe Biden. Thirteen Chinese warplanes flew into Taiwan’s southwestern ADIZ on Saturday and 15 entered yesterday, the highest number observed in a single day this year, the Ministry of National Defense said. On Saturday, eight Xian H-6K bombers, four Shenyang J-16 fighters and a Y-8 anti-submarine aircraft, entered the ADIZ, while yesterday there were two Y-8s, two Su-30s, four J-16s, six J-10 fighters and a Y-8 reconnaissance
DISPOSING MYTHS: A new constitution would better reflect reality, as the current one was drafted ‘in and for China,’ without the consent of Taiwanese, advocates said Independence advocates yesterday launched the Taiwan New Constitution Alliance to promote drafting a new, localized constitution. “This is a historic moment for Taiwan. Drafting a new constitution is the most important task Taiwanese face,” veteran independence advocate Koo Kwang-ming (辜寬敏) said at the inaugural event in Taipei. “Although the Democratic Progressive Party is in power, its authority is based on the Republic of China [ROC] Constitution, which has no connection to Taiwan,” said the 95-year-old Koo, a former presidential adviser. “The historic task of drafting a new constitution depends on efforts by all Taiwanese,” Koo said. “A constitution for a sovereign, independent Taiwan
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