■ DIPLOMACY
DPP chair to visit Japan
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is scheduled to depart for Japan tomorrow on a three-day visit, the DPP announced yesterday. On her first visit to Japan since assuming leadership of the DPP last year, Tsai is expected to deliver a lecture on current affairs in Taiwan and relations between Taiwan and Japan, said Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴), a special aide to Tsai. Hsiao said that during its eight years in office, the DPP made strenuous efforts to cement ties between Taiwan and Japan and that it hoped Tsai’s forthcoming visit would make Japan aware that even in opposition, the party was still working to help achieve this goal. Hsiao declined to disclose the details of Tsai’s itinerary or which Japanese political figures the chairperson would meet.
■ DIPLOMACY
AIT chair to arrive tomorrow
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) announced yesterday that its chairman, Raymond Burghardt, was scheduled to visit Taiwan. During his visit from tomorrow to Wednesday, Burghardt is expected to meet with President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and leaders in Taiwan’s political and business sectors, the AIT said. It will be Burghardt’s fifth visit to Taiwan since he assumed the AIT chairmanship in February 2006. The last time he visited Taiwan was last March soon after Taiwan’s presidential election. Burghardt was the director of the AIT Taipei Office between 1999 and 2001. He concurrently serves as director of East-West Seminars at the East-West Center in Honolulu, the AIT said.
■ DIPLOMACY
MOFA complains to Manila
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) lodged a protest to the government of the Philippines yesterday, restating Taiwan’s sovereignty over islands and reefs in the South China Sea, including the Spratlys. The ministry summoned the Manila representative to Taiwan to issue the protest. The ministry protest came in response to an act signed by Philippine President Gloria Arroyo on Tuesday to annex some islets and reefs of the Spratly Islands and Macclesfield Bank Islands as part of the Philippines’ territory. The ministry called on the Philippines to negotiate with Taiwan on the sovereignty dispute under the principles and in the spirit of the UN Charter, the UN Convention on the Law of Sea and the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea to resolve the conflicting claims peacefully. Vietnam, China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei each claim all or part of the Spratlys, which are believed to be sitting on large oil and natural gas reserves.
■ EVENTS
Design contest to open
An annual unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) design competition will take place today and tomorrow in Pingtung County, a competition that could provide the county with a new device to uncover illegal gravel operations in its rivers. Organized jointly by the National Science Council, the Pingtung County Government and National Cheng Kung University, this year’s Taiwan Robot Aircraft Design Competition features 60 teams from 15 universities. Only about half of the participants will be from aerospace engineering departments, the organizers said. It will be the 11th competition of its kind, said Lai Wei-hsiang (賴維祥), a professor of aerospace engineering at the university who launched the contest to stimulate creativity in the design of aerial vehicles. Apart from the design competition, there will also be a photo contest and a show of flying skills by top operators.
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry