■ Education
AIT says student visas rising
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) announced yesterday that student
visas issued to Taiwanese
in the first 10 months of
this year have surpassed
the figure for all of last
year. AIT has issued 12,654 students visas to Taiwanese so far this year, compared
to 11,277 for all of last
year, officials said. They said that the acceptance
rate for student visa appli-cations has continued to
rise over the past several years. Over 97 percent of applications have resulted in a student visa. This com-pares with issuance rates of approximately 90 percent in 2002 and 91 percent last year. "We welcome and want to encourage international students to come to the US to study," AIT Director Douglas Paal said. "Although we have implemented new measures to make our borders and
the traveling public more secure, we have not changed the basic criteria for visa eligibility to visit or study
in the United States," he
said.
■ Religion
Sex banned during festival
Fengyuan will ban love-making for three days next month during a Taoist festival, the organizing temple announced yester-day. The Chi An Chien Chiao (Pray for Peace) festival, held very 20 years, will be held from Dec. 8 to 10. All residents have been asked
by the temple's management committee to eat vegetarian food and refrain from having sex during the festival to show respect for the temple's god mother. "We called a meeting for repre-sentatives from restaurants, hotels and brothels and asked them to follow the rules during the festival. They all agreed," Cheng Ping-hsi, deputy director of the committee, told Chinese Television (CTV). Restaurant owners agreed to either serve only vegetarian food during the festival or close for the three days. Brothel and hotel owners agreed to suspend sex trade for three days, he said.
■ Society
Quality of life ranks high
Taiwan ranks 21st among 111 countries in terms of quality of living environ-ment, according to a recent survey carried in a publica-tion by The Economist. Taiwan scored 7.26 out
of a possible 10 in the survey in The World in 2005. Ireland topped the list with
a score of 8.33, followed
by Switzerland, Norway, Luxemburg and Sweden. Australia, Iceland, Italy, Denmark and Spain rounded out the top 10. The US and Canada ranked 13th and 14th, respectively. China placed 60th, while Hong Kong was ranked 18th.
■ Defense
Keen on anti-terrorism
Taiwan will not absent
itself from international counterterrorist actions
and efforts, Minister of the Interior Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) said in a speech in Hawaii this week, sources from the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. Su attended the 2004 Asia-Pacific Homeland Security Summit and Exposition in Honolulu from Sunday through Wednesday and
gave a speech on measures taken against global terror-ism. He said Taiwan had established a national counter-terrorism action task force in early 2002 in accordance with a resolu-tion reached by the UN Security Council in the
wake of the Sept. 11 terror-ist attacks. Su urged the
US to include Taiwan in
a global counter-terrorism system and expressed Taiwan's eagerness to join the US-led Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI). Su is scheduled to return to Taipei tomorrow.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
The Chinese military has boosted its capability to fight at a high tempo using the element of surprise and new technology, the Ministry of National Defense said in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) published on Monday last week. The ministry highlighted Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) developments showing significant changes in Beijing’s strategy for war on Taiwan. The PLA has made significant headway in building capabilities for all-weather, multi-domain intelligence, surveillance, operational control and a joint air-sea blockade against Taiwan’s lines of communication, it said. The PLA has also improved its capabilities in direct amphibious assault operations aimed at seizing strategically important beaches,
‘MALIGN PURPOSE’: Governments around the world conduct espionage operations, but China’s is different, as its ultimate goal is annexation, a think tank head said Taiwan is facing a growing existential threat from its own people spying for China, experts said, as the government seeks to toughen measures to stop Beijing’s infiltration efforts and deter Taiwanese turncoats. While Beijing and Taipei have been spying on each other for years, experts said that espionage posed a bigger threat to Taiwan due to the risk of a Chinese attack. Taiwan’s intelligence agency said China used “diverse channels and tactics” to infiltrate the nation’s military, government agencies and pro-China organizations. The main targets were retired and active members of the military, persuaded by money, blackmail or pro-China ideology to steal
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