■ EDUCATION
Free education extended
Starting this academic year, children aged between five and six who are of Aborigine heritage or live on outlying islands will receive free education, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The ministry intends to include children whose families have an annual income of less than NT$1.1 million (US$35,000) in the free early childhood education program next year, said Cheng Lai-chang (鄭來長), deputy head of the Department of Compulsory Education. The program will later be extended to all children in the five-to-six age group, Cheng said. The government plans to include all children aged between two and six in the nationwide compulsory education system once the legislature gives approval to the plan, Cheng said.
■ ENTERTAINMENT
Night owls get extra day
Starting next month, consumers who rent movies between 10pm to 12am will get an extra day before they have to return the movies, the Consumer Protection Commission said yesterday. It said many consumers had complained that they don’t have time to rent a movie until 10pm or 11pm, but they are still charged for the full day. The commission recently revised standard contracts for movie rentals, which now states that consumers who rent movies between 10pm to 12am will get an extra day before they must return the videos, legal division director Chiu Hui-mei (邱惠美) said. For example, when the new regulations take effect next month, a person who rents a movie for three days between 10pm to 12am on Wednesday needs to return the movie by the end of Saturday, the comission said.
■ SOCIETY
Samuel Yin honored
Ruentex Group president Samuel Yin (尹衍樑) has been named vice president of the Russian Academy of Engineering (RAE), becoming the first person not from a former Soviet Union country to receive the honor, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. Yin also received the institute’s “Engineering Courage Award” on Sept. 15, said Lin Jinn-jong (林進忠), director general of the Department of West Asian Affairs. Yin, whose business interests include textiles, education, retailing, medical services and construction, became an RAE member in 2008 and received an Engineering Glory Award the same year. The 60-year-old Yin is best known for introducing prefabricated construction to Taiwan in the mid-1990s, which he used to help build Taipei 101.
■ SOCIETY
Meat Free Monday urged
Mankind’s chances of survival on Earth would increase if fewer people ate meat, Nobel Chemistry Prize Laureate Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲) said in a discussion yesterday. In a video presentation at a press conference in Taipei, Lee urged people to live a simpler and more thrifty life that would include eating less meat and more vegetables. “The fewer meat consumers there are, the better humans’ chances of survival on the planet,” said Lee, adding that if humans fail to take any action, floods and droughts would become more serious. He also said that the human race could become extinct in another 100 years if the level of greenhouse gases continues to rise at unprecedented rates. Writer Su Hsiao-huan (蘇小歡) and a group of environmentalists initiated Meat Free Monday in Taiwan last year with the aim of raising public awareness of the environmental impact of meat production and consumption. It promotes the idea of making a difference by eating vegetarian meals at least one day a week.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
The Chinese military has boosted its capability to fight at a high tempo using the element of surprise and new technology, the Ministry of National Defense said in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) published on Monday last week. The ministry highlighted Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) developments showing significant changes in Beijing’s strategy for war on Taiwan. The PLA has made significant headway in building capabilities for all-weather, multi-domain intelligence, surveillance, operational control and a joint air-sea blockade against Taiwan’s lines of communication, it said. The PLA has also improved its capabilities in direct amphibious assault operations aimed at seizing strategically important beaches,
‘MALIGN PURPOSE’: Governments around the world conduct espionage operations, but China’s is different, as its ultimate goal is annexation, a think tank head said Taiwan is facing a growing existential threat from its own people spying for China, experts said, as the government seeks to toughen measures to stop Beijing’s infiltration efforts and deter Taiwanese turncoats. While Beijing and Taipei have been spying on each other for years, experts said that espionage posed a bigger threat to Taiwan due to the risk of a Chinese attack. Taiwan’s intelligence agency said China used “diverse channels and tactics” to infiltrate the nation’s military, government agencies and pro-China organizations. The main targets were retired and active members of the military, persuaded by money, blackmail or pro-China ideology to steal
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