■ POLITICS
PRC tells US to drop sale
China’s defense minister yesterday called on the US to drop a planned weapons sale to Taiwan, saying it threatened China-US defense cooperation, state media reported. Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie (梁光烈) also called on Washington to cease all military ties with Taiwan, during a meeting in Beijing with the visiting former chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Richard Myers, Xinhua news agency said. “The US arms sale to Taiwan has poisoned the sound atmosphere of bilateral military relations and endangered China’s national security,” Liang was quoted as telling Myers. The Pentagon notified Congress in October that it planned to sell US$6.5 billion in military hardware to Taiwan. The sale was expected to include advanced interceptor missiles, Apache attack helicopters and submarine-launched missiles. The US Defense Department has said the proposed sale was aimed at improving Taiwan’s defenses and would not alter the basic military balance in the region.
■ EARTHQUAKES
Tremor jolts nation
A 6.0-magnitude earthquake jolted the nation yesterday, but there were no immediate reports of damage, casualties or tsunamis, seismologists said. The undersea tremor struck at 5:18am about 54km east of Hualien at a depth of 35km, it said. The US Geological Survey put the magnitude of the quake at 5.3.
■ CRIME
Ex-KMT legislator indicted
The Kinmen Prosecutor’s Office last night indicted former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Wu Cherng-dean (吳成典), his wife and one of his staffers for allegedly embezzling NT$6 million (US$178,700) during Wu’s two legislative terms. Prosecutors sought a 15-year prison sentence for Wu. They received a tip-off earlier this year that Wu had allegedly embezzled payments reserved for legislative aides between 2002 and earlier this year. Prosecutors said Wu’s wife, Deng Yen-hsi (鄧琰係) and the director of Wu’s Kinmen office, Hsu Li-hung (許勵宏), helped embezzle the money even though they knew it was from public funds. Wu last night protested his innocence and said he would appeal.
■ POLITICS
Diane Lee still denies claim
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Diane Lee (李慶安) yesterday continued to defend herself against Democratic Progressive Party speculation that she has US citizenship. Lee reiterated her claim that she automatically lost her US citizenship when she began serving as a public official in Taiwan in 1994. Lee presented a document she said she had obtained from US State Department official Edward Betancourt last Thursday, saying that the department had not and would not discuss the results of its investigation into her US citizenship status until the probe had been concluded. Lee held the press conference after Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrew Hsia (夏立言) told the legislature’s Foreign and National Defense Committee meeting yesterday morning that the ministry had received a response from the American Institute in Taiwan’s Washington headquarters regarding the legislature’s inquiry about the nationality status of all of the nation’s lawmakers. Hsia said the ministry would send the response to the legislature directly since the legislature’s inquiry was labeled as confidential.
The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a southwestern extension of the Sanying MRT Line from New Taipei to Bade District (八德) in Taoyuan, with a goal of starting construction by late 2026. The 4.03-kilometer extension, featuring three new stations, will run from the current terminus at Yingtao Fude Station (LB12) in New Taipei City to Dannan Station (LB14), where it will connect with Taoyuan’s Green Line, New Taipei City Metro Corp said in a statement. This extension will follow the completion of core Sanying Line, a 14.29-kilometer medium-capacity system linking Tucheng (土城), Sansia (三峽)
CARGO LOSS: About 50 containers at the stern of the ‘Ever Lunar’ cargo ship went overboard, prompting the temporary closure of the port and disrupting operations Evergreen Marine Corp, Taiwan’s largest container shipper, yesterday said that all crew members aboard the Ever Lunar (長月) were safe after dozens of containers fell overboard off the coast of Peru the previous day. The incident occurred at 9:40am on Friday as the Ever Lunar was anchored and waiting to enter the Port of Callao when it suddenly experienced severe rolling, Evergreen said in a statement. The rolling, which caused the containers to fall, might have been caused by factors including a tsunami triggered by an earthquake in Russia, poor winter sea conditions in South America or a sudden influx of waves,
The Ministry of Culture yesterday officially launched the “We TAIWAN” cultural program on Osaka’s Nakanoshima sandbank, with the program’s mascot receiving overwhelming popularity. The cultural program, which runs from Aug. 2 to 20, was designed to partner with and capitalize on the 2025 World Expo that is being held in Osaka, Japan, from April 13 to Oct. 13, the ministry said. On the first day of the cultural program, its mascot, a green creature named “a-We,” proved to be extremely popular, as its merch was immediately in high demand. Long lines formed yesterday for the opening
BE CAREFUL: The virus rarely causes severe illness or death, but newborns, older people and those with medical conditions are at risk of more severe illness As more than 7,000 cases of chikungunya fever have been reported in China’s Guangdong Province this year, including 2,892 new cases last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday said it is monitoring the situation and considering raising the travel notice level, which might be announced today. The CDC issued a level 1 travel notice, or “watch,” for Guangdong Province on July 22, citing an outbreak in Foshan, a manufacturing hub in the south of the province, that was reported early last month. Between July 27 and Saturday, the province reported 2,892 new cases of chikungunya, reaching a total of 7,716
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