POLITICS
Lo to resign office
Presidential Office spokesman Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) confirmed yesterday that he would resign from his post and devote his efforts to the campaign for President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) re-election. Lo will head the news media, social networking and youth department at Ma’s presidential campaign office. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) spokesman Fan Chiang Tai-chi (范姜泰基) will take over as the Presidential Office spokesman starting today. Lo, one of Ma’s presidential campaign spokesmen during the 2008 presidential campaign, has become a close aide to Ma since he took office. Fan Chiang, who helped Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) win re-election as his campaign spokesman last year, said the new post presented great challenges, but he would make the effort to do his job well.
LAW
Military law revised
Taiwan moved a step closer toward the reduced use of the death penalty yesterday as the Legislative Yuan amended the country’s law on military service violations. The legislature passed the third reading of the bill, which amends the Punishment Act for Violation to the Military Service System (妨害兵役治罪條例) by removing capital punishment as an option in Articles 16 and 17. According to the revised articles, those who carry weapons in a group and seriously hurt a person while trying to obstruct individuals from performing their military service will be subject to a maximum life sentence rather than the death penalty. The amendment was passed to protect human rights in line with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, both signed by Taiwan in 2009, the government said.
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
Celebrations marking Double Ten National Day are to begin in Taipei today before culminating in a fireworks display in Yunlin County on the night of Thursday next week. To start the celebrations, a concert is to be held at the Taipei Dome at 4pm today, featuring a lineup of award-winning singers, including Jody Chiang (江蕙), Samingad (紀曉君) and Huang Fei (黃妃), Taipei tourism bureau official Chueh Yu-ling (闕玉玲) told a news conference yesterday. School choirs, including the Pqwasan na Taoshan Choir and Hngzyang na Matui & Nahuy Children’s Choir, and the Ministry of National Defense Symphony Orchestra, flag presentation unit and choirs,
China is attempting to subsume Taiwanese culture under Chinese culture by promulgating legislation on preserving documents on ties between the Minnan region and Taiwan, a Taiwanese academic said yesterday. China on Tuesday enforced the Fujian Province Minnan and Taiwan Document Protection Act to counter Taiwanese cultural independence with historical evidence that would root out misleading claims, Chinese-language media outlet Straits Today reported yesterday. The act is “China’s first ad hoc local regulations in the cultural field that involve Taiwan and is a concrete step toward implementing the integrated development demonstration zone,” Fujian Provincial Archives deputy director Ma Jun-fan (馬俊凡) said. The documents
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