■ EDUCATION
English tests to be offered
The US-based Educational Testing Service (ETS) will begin offering English writing and speaking tests next month for enterprises in Taiwan in a drive to improve English skills, the Taiwan representative of the ETS Taiwan branch said yesterday. Wang Hsing-wei (王星威) held a press conference in Taipei to announce the new tests, which are part of the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) targeting working people, alongside tests in listening and reading. The new TOEIC tests will be available for group applicants in January and for individual applicants in August, with the examinees required to take the tests on a computer, according to the ETC office.
■ GOVERNMENT
Taipei takes over pools
The Taipei City Government took over the management of seven heated swimming pools in the city yesterday after a private company contracted to run the facilities shut them down a day earlier due to financial difficulties. Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) told reporters that the city government will safeguard the interests of Taipei residents and their right to use the facilities, based on provisions of the contracts between the city government and Eden Athletics. Hau said he has asked the Parks and Street Lights Office of the city government's Public Works Bureau to seek legal counsel to resolve the dispute. Eden Athletics was awarded contracts to run 14 swimming pools owned by the city government, including seven heated pools which remain open in winter. The company has run into financial difficulties recently and owes NT$20 million (US$617,650) in royalties to the Taipei City Government.
Thirty-five earthquakes have exceeded 5.5 on the Richter scale so far this year, the most in 14 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said on Facebook on Thursday. A large earthquake in Hualien County on April 3 released five times as much the energy as the 921 Earthquake on Sept. 21, 1999, the agency said in its latest earthquake report for this year. Hualien County has had the most national earthquake alerts so far this year at 64, with Yilan County second with 23 and Changhua County third with nine, the agency said. The April 3 earthquake was what caused the increase in
INTIMIDATION: In addition to the likely military drills near Taiwan, China has also been waging a disinformation campaign to sow division between Taiwan and the US Beijing is poised to encircle Taiwan proper in military exercise “Joint Sword-2024C,” starting today or tomorrow, as President William Lai (賴清德) returns from his visit to diplomatic allies in the Pacific, a national security official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said that multiple intelligence sources showed that China is “highly likely” to launch new drills around Taiwan. Although the drills’ scale is unknown, there is little doubt that they are part of the military activities China initiated before Lai’s departure, they said. Beijing at the same time is conducting information warfare by fanning skepticism of the US and
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is unlikely to attempt an invasion of Taiwan during US president-elect Donald Trump’s time in office, Taiwanese and foreign academics said on Friday. Trump is set to begin his second term early next year. Xi’s ambition to establish China as a “true world power” has intensified over the years, but he would not initiate an invasion of Taiwan “in the near future,” as his top priority is to maintain the regime and his power, not unification, Tokyo Woman’s Christian University distinguished visiting professor and contemporary Chinese politics expert Akio Takahara said. Takahara made the comment at a
DEFENSE: This month’s shipment of 38 modern M1A2T tanks would begin to replace the US-made M60A3 and indigenous CM11 tanks, whose designs date to the 1980s The M1A2T tanks that Taiwan expects to take delivery of later this month are to spark a “qualitative leap” in the operational capabilities of the nation’s armored forces, a retired general told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) in an interview published yesterday. On Tuesday, the army in a statement said it anticipates receiving the first batch of 38 M1A2T Abrams main battle tanks from the US, out of 108 tanks ordered, in the coming weeks. The M1 Abrams main battle tank is a generation ahead of the Taiwanese army’s US-made M60A3 and indigenously developed CM11 tanks, which have
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