■ Travel
Japan to extend visa waver
Japan's ruling coalition has decided to propose that the parliament make a special law to allow Taiwanese to enter the country visa-free after the Aichi Expo ends in September. Japan currently offers visa-free treatment to Taiwanese tourists during the Expo, which ends Sept. 25. At a meeting Wednesday, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and Komeido resolved to ask their lawmakers to put forward a special bill making such treatment permanent. Taiwan is the second-largest source of foreign visitors to Japan after South Korea. In February, a special law was passed to allow Taiwanese people to enter for 90 days without a visa during the Aichi Expo. The law went into effect March 11. According to the Taiwan Visitors Association, almost 740,000 Taiwanese visited Japan last year and the new measure is expected to boost that number.
■ Politics
Wang swears by Sun
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) swore by the nation's founding father Sun Yat-sen (孫中山) yesterday that he is against Taiwanese independence and will uphold the rights of the Republic of China (ROC). Accompanied by supporters, Wang went to the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Taipei to pay his respects to the nation's founder on the 60 anniversary of the end of war against Japanese aggression and pledged in front of the statue of Sun to oppose Taiwanese independence, the establishment of a new constitution, changing the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) name or rectifying the national title of Taiwan and pledged to defend the sovereign rights the ROC should he become KMT chairman.
■ Weather
Heavy rain warning issued
The approach of a tropical low pressure system from the South China Sea yesterday prompted heavy rain warnings by the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) yesterday. Officials said that residents in the western, northern and northeastern parts of the country should expect rain over the next few days. Thicker clouds have caused temperatures to fall, forecasters said, with Taipei recording a high of 34.4?C yesterday.
■ Crime
Japanese deported for porn
A Japanese man was sent home yesterday for allegedly operating pornographic TV companies in Taiwan and beaming programs by satellite to countries across Asia, the Criminal Investigation Bureau said. Shuichi Mogi, who used to work for a pornographic TV operation linked to a yakuza gang, was escorted home by three Japanese policemen, the bureau said in a statement. Mogi was arrested last October in a joint investigation involving police in Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines. He is suspected of setting up two companies in Taipei since 2002 and obtaining two satellite channels in 2003 to broadcast multilingual porn programs. Some 300 pornographic videotapes, a box of DVDs, six computer hard-drives, a modem and satellite equipment were seized when he was arrested.
■ Crime
Man killed in Cambodia
A Taiwanese businessman who ran a tea shop in Phnom Penh was shot dead inside his restaurant, Cambodian police said yesterday. Lu Y Jen, 34, the owner of Paris Bubble Tea, was shot in the chest and throat early Wednesday and died in a hospital, a senior police officer said. Police suspected the killing was motivated by jealousy over the success of Lu's business.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
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