■ DIPLOMACY
`Firecracker' CD released
The Taipei City Government began handing out free "firecracker CDs" yesterday to prevent firecracker-related injuries during the Lunar New Year holiday. Residents can obtain a copy of the Environmental Friendly, Smokeless Firecracker CD -- with recordings of exploding firecrackers -- at Taipei City Government offices or by mail. The city has banned the use of firecrackers at all public locations within 50m of schools and those that create too much noise. The Lunar New Year holidays begin on Feb. 6.
■ DIPLOMACY
Visa-free visits extended
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday that starting Friday, the government would grant 90-day visa-free privileges to Japanese tourists visiting Taiwan. Ministry spokeswoman Phoebe Yeh (葉非比) said Taiwan already grants 30-day visa-free privileges to Japanese tourists and said the extension would make it the longest granted to foreign visitors. Yeh said the ministry and other government agencies had begun planning reciprocal measures after Japan granted Taiwanese 90-day visa-free privileges in 2005. She said the new measure should help bilateral relations. The ministry said the number of visits between Taiwan and Japan totaled 2.5 million last year, with about 1.2 million Japanese visiting Taiwan.
■ DEFENSE
Taiping airstrip opened
The military has completed an airstrip on the disputed Spratly Islands, sources said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense has completed a 1,150m runway on Taiping and tested it, the sources said. The sources said the strip would be for military or civilian maritime rescue use. "It's for movement of vehicles, any kind of vehicles, civilian or military," a ministry spokesman said. The airstrip will supplement Coast Guard and Air Force stations on Taiping, the biggest in the Spratly chain at 489,500m2 and 1,000km south of Taiwan. The Spratlys are also claimed by Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines. Last year, Kaohsiung established a green turtle reserve on Taiping in a bid to stop hunting. All governments, except Brunei, that have made claims to the Spratlys have installed facilities there.
■ ARTS
Opera house on the way
Construction of the Taichung Metropolitan Opera House -- a building Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) has described as "a feat of engineering" -- began on Monday in downtown Taichung City. Addressing a groundbreaking ceremony to mark the start of construction, Hu said the simple ceremony represents the emergence of a new landmark in Taichung and a new page in the city's history. Hu said the opera house is an artistic work of innovation designed by Japanese architect Toyo Ito, a realization of Taichung's vision of overall development and an architectural piece that has already become an eye-opener in international architectural circles. He added that when it is built, the opera house will be considered on a par with the Sydney Opera House, one of the architectural masterpieces of the southern hemisphere. The opera house will cost NT$3.5 billion (US$108.36 million) and will be built on a site measuring 57,685m2. It will seat 2,009 in the main auditorium, 800 in a "playhouse" and 200 in a "black box," according to Ito's design. The "black box," an experimental stage, will form an intimate environment suitable for small theater. The wide space around the theater will provide the theater with exceptional flexibility.
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, was arrested in Boston last month amid US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday. The arrest of Liou was first made public on the official Web site of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday. ICE said Liou was apprehended for overstaying her visa. The Boston Field Office’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) had arrested Liou, a “fugitive, criminal alien wanted for embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes in Taiwan,” ICE said. Liou was taken into custody
The US-Japan joint statement released on Friday not mentioning the “one China” policy might be a sign that US President Donald Trump intends to decouple US-China relations from Taiwan, a Taiwanese academic said. Following Trump’s meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Friday, the US and Japan issued a joint statement where they reaffirmed the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Trump has not personally brought up the “one China” policy in more than a year, National Taiwan University Department of Political Science Associate Professor Chen Shih-min (陳世民)
‘NEVER!’ Taiwan FactCheck Center said it had only received donations from the Open Society Foundations, which supports nonprofits that promote democratic values Taiwan FactCheck Center (TFC) has never received any donation from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), a cofounder of the organization wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday. The Taipei-based organization was established in 2018 by Taiwan Media Watch Foundation and the Association of Quality Journalism to monitor and verify news and information accuracy. It was officially registered as a foundation in 2021. National Chung Cheng University communications professor Lo Shih-hung (羅世宏), a cofounder and chairman of TFC, was responding to online rumors that the TFC receives funding from the US government’s humanitarian assistance agency via the Open Society Foundations (OSF),
ANNUAL LIGHT SHOW: The lanterns are exhibited near Taoyuan’s high-speed rail station and around the Taoyuan Sports Park Station of the airport MRT line More than 400 lanterns are to be on display at the annual Taiwan Lantern Festival, which officially starts in Taoyuan today. The city is hosting the festival for the second time — the first time was in 2016. The Tourism Administration held a rehearsal of the festival last night. Chunghwa Telecom donated the main lantern of the festival to the Taoyuan City Government. The lanterns are exhibited in two main areas: near the high-speed rail (HSR) station in Taoyuan, which is at the A18 station of the Taoyuan Airport MRT, and around the Taoyuan Sports Park Station of the MRT