A crowd holding fluorescent sticks and positioned to form the letters "VT" for "Victory Taiwan" on Ketagalan Boulevard welcomed the return of a torch relay promoting the nation's UN bid to Taipei last night after an 11-day national tour.
President Chen Shui-bian (
Chen and Lu led one group of supporters down one road, while Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) and running mate Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) led another down a separate road, meeting up on Ketagalan Boulevard for the celebrations.
DPP officials jointly lit a cauldron of oil with the torches, while the crowd cheered "UN for Taiwan, Peace Forever" and "Taiwan jiayou" (加油, an expression of encouragement).
Chang Yi-chan (
UNTA, which organized the torch relay for the DPP, provided electric torches and fluorescent sticks for the crowd.
DPP Culture and Information Department Director Hsieh Hsin-ni (
In related news, Hsieh's campaign office yesterday launched a "one letter per person" campaign, urging citizens to each send one letter to the UN to promote the nation's UN bid.
Dropping a postcard into a mail box yesterday, Lee Ying-yuan (
The postcard was designed by Hsieh's camp and features the faces of people of different ages and nationalities.
Lee said an empty space at the center was intended for the senders to put on a personal photo to show their support of Taiwan's UN application.
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
China’s newest Type-076 amphibious assault ship has two strengths and weaknesses, wrote a Taiwanese defense expert, adding that further observations of its capabilities are warranted. Jiang Hsin-biao (江炘杓), an assistant researcher at the National Defense and Security Research, made the comments in a report recently published by the institute about the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) military and political development. China christened its new assault ship Sichuan in a ceremony on Dec. 27 last year at Shanghai’s Hudong Shipyard, China’s Xinhua news agency reported. “The vessel, described as the world’s largest amphibious assault ship by the [US think tank] Center for Strategic and International
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