President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday visited military servicemen, sanitation workers and police officers to thank them for working on Lunar New Year’s Eve.
Like he had done in past years, Ma had a lunch gathering with representatives of military servicemen at Army Command Headquarters at noon before heading to Taoyuan County to give his regards to the cleaning squad in Jhongli City (中壢) and to police on duty at Xinglong police station in Taipei’s Muzha District (木柵).
Ma, accompanied by Premier and vice president-elect Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), attended the annual bell-ringing event at the Dharma Drum Mountain Buddhist Temple in Jinshan District (金山), New Taipei City (新北市).
The ceremony began at 10pm, with the bell being sounded 108 times to bid farewell to misfortunes in the past year and offer blessings and a prayer of peace for the people of Taiwan in the new year. Ma delivered the final strike to ring in the Year of the Dragon.
In a recorded Lunar New Year’s Eve address, the president wished the public a prosperous the Year of the Dragon, saying that his campaign promise of a “golden decade” of national development would turn the Republic of China into a world-class nation.
In the next three days, Ma is scheduled to make a total of 17 trips to temples and greet templegoers; visit Ma Village in Miaoli County to hand out red envelopes; visit former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Lien Chan (連戰), senior KMT member Lin Yang-kang (林洋港) and Buddhist Master Hsing Yun (星雲法師); and meet residents of post-Morakot communities in Greater Kaohsiung.
Information from the Presidential Office shows that Ma will not make a public appearance from Thursday to Sunday. During the period, he will presumably be working on the new Cabinet lineup, which is expected to be announced after Wu leads the Cabinet in resigning en masse on Jan. 31.
Earlier yesterday, Wu and Vice Premier Sean Chen, who is expected to be named premier, went to work as usual.
Queried by reporters about his rumored promotion, Chen declined to comment, saying that the “appointment of a premier is the president’s prerogative. We shall not infringe on the president’s prerogative.”
“We have been monitoring how the euro debt crisis evolves very closely. Although we are taking a Lunar New Year holiday, Europe is not,” Chen said.
The Chinese-language United Daily News has reported that Council of Labor Affairs Minister Jennifer Wang (王如玄) was a candidate for vice premier.
Minister of the Interior Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) was also a potential candidate, the report said.
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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