DIPLOMACY
Sister city ties eyed
Washington has offered to forge sister city ties with Taipei, the Taipei City Government said in a statement yesterday. The proposal was raised the previous day by Washington Mayor Vincent Gray during a visit to the US capital by Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌). Hau readily accepted the offer and said the two sides would realize the arrangement very soon, the statement said. Hau also invited Gray to visit Taipei in the hope that relations between the cities would be deepened through such exchanges. Hau arrived in the US capital on Wednesday on a four-day visit, part of a three-nation tour that will also take him to Nicaragua and Panama. The main purpose of the trip is to attend the 55th Sister Cities International Annual Conference being held March 3 to March 5 in Arlington, Virginia and to strengthen Taipei’s friendship with its sister cities in the US and Central America, the statement said.
SOCIETY
People receiving aid up 17%
The number of people in the country who received government aid last year stood at 188,433, representing 17 percent growth compared with the previous year, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The ministry attributed the growth to a 2009 amendment to the act that governs the government’s relief for women in special circumstances, including domestic violence victims and single mothers who lost their jobs or were too sick to raise their children. Under the amendment, the act was expanded to cover “families in special circumstances,” so that men in similar circumstances were included. According to ministry data, the ministry released NT$478.6 million (US$16.3 million) of relief subsidies last year.
TOURISM
Japan-Taiwan ties upgraded
In a gesture of upgrading the importance of Japan-Taiwan tourism exchanges, the Interchange Association, Japan (IAJ) will take over the assignment from a private entity starting on April 1. The private Japan Tourist Association’s Taiwan Office will come to an end on March 31 and the IAJ, Japan’s representative office in Taipei, will be in charge of all related activities the next day, said Toshinobu Ikubo, head of the association’s Taiwan office. According to Ikubo, the change is part of Tokyo’s policy of giving tourists a one-stop service location for planning their vacations to Japan. This change can be viewed as an upgrade in bilateral tourism activities between the two countries, as well as the Japanese government’s renewed priority toward attracting tourists from Taiwan. The private office had set a goal of attracting 1.5 million Taiwanese visitors to Japan this year, a goal that will be adopted by the IAJ.
CULTURE
NPM construction date set
Construction of the southern branch of the National Palace Museum (NPM) will start in January 2013 and the branch will open on a trial basis upon completion, which is scheduled for 2015, the museum said. The first stage of the project will involve construction of the main buildings and general landscaping, the museum said. It was decided in 2004 that a branch would be established in Chiayi County, with the aim of showcasing Asian arts and cultures. However, major revisions were subsequently made to the details of the project and they were not finalized until last October when the Cabinet approved the changes, according to a statement issued by the museum.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
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