EDUCATION
Student fined NT$214
A Tamkang University student, Chiu Ting (邱庭), was recently fined NT$214 for accusing his teacher in an online post of being too strict and claiming that one-third of the class was barred from taking exams because of frequent absence. The teacher, Chang Ya-hui (張雅慧), said posting the accusations on an online bulletin board amounted to a public insult and filed a civil suit against Chiu, demanding NT$1 in damages for each day — 214 in all — the entry was left online. Chiu will have to write an apology and also leave it on the bulletin board for 214 days, the court ruled. The verdict can be appealed. Chang had also filed a criminal suit against Chiu over the matter, with the court sentencing Chiu to 25 days in jail, which can be converted to a fine of NT$25,000. However, after considering that Chiu had apologized to Chang and that he had no previous criminal record, the judge changed it to a three-year suspended sentence, during which time Chiu must perform 180 hours of community service.
TOURISM
Foreigners join writing bee
With cash prizes totaling NT$500,000, a writing contest for foreign nationals to share their experiences in Taiwan has drawn more than 1,000 entries since it was launched on Jan. 1, the organizer said yesterday. “Top 100 Fun Things to Do in Taiwan” is the topic of the contest being held as part of the efforts by the Tourism Bureau to attract foreign tourists, especially those from the US and Canada, a spokesperson for the event said. Foreign nationals living in Taiwan or overseas can submit an article of 50 to 100 words in English and up to five pictures to share their favorite experience in Taiwan to www.fun100.tealit.com until Feb. 10. The 50 best entries will receive an award, with a top prize of NT$50,000. Winners will be announced on Feb. 21 and the prizes awarded on March 15.
HEALTH
Playing cards found unsafe
Toxic residues have been found in playing cards, clothes and other products that have been selling well ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, a government official said yesterday. Tests of 30 playing card samples taken from stationery stores and supermarkets showed that five items contained free formaldehyde ranging from 267 parts per million (ppm) to 612ppm — at least three times higher than the 75ppm permissible level, the Bureau of Standards, Meteorology and Inspection said. Inhaling and touching high levels of formaldehyde residue can cause skin allergies, bureau Director-General Huang Lai-ho (黃來和) said. Random checks of 20 articles of children’s clothing also showed that one contained excessive amounts of the carcinogen benzidine, he said.
HEALTH
Guatemala mission shown
A documentary featuring Taiwan’s medical aid to Guatemala, one of its diplomatic allies, will be broadcast on a wireless television channel on Sunday at 7am. The documentary was jointly produced by Central News Agency (CNA) and the Taipei-based Chinese Television System (CTS) to cover a charity-oriented medial mission by Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Guatemala last year. The hospital had shipped 2 tonnes of drugs and medical items before the medical team left for the mission. The Chang Gung team performed six cleft lip and palate operations with simple equipment and devices in Guatemala.
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
An alleged US government plan to encourage Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) to form a joint venture with Intel to boost US chipmaking would place the Taiwanese foundry giant in a more disadvantageous position than proposed tariffs on imported chips, a semiconductor expert said yesterday. If TSMC forms a joint venture with its US rival, it faces the risk of technology outflow, said Liu Pei-chen (劉佩真), a researcher at the Taiwan Industry Economics Database of the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research. A report by international financial services firm Baird said that Asia semiconductor supply chain talks suggest that the US government would