SOCIETY
Kaohsiung births increase
Greater Kaohsiung observed an increase in both marriages and births last year, a year many people considered to be lucky, the city’s Department of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said. According to department’s statistics, 18,732 couples tied the knot in the municipality last year, compared with 15,659 couples in 2010. As for the birthrate, the number of babies born reached 21,411, compared with 19,198 in 2010. As it is the Year of the Dragon, the department said it was expecting high birthrates for this year as well. The Social Affairs Bureau added it would offer financial rewards to couples who have children this year. Parents would be given a birth stipend of NT$6,000 per child and NT$10,000 to couples that have a third child, the bureau said, adding that before infants reach their first birthday, parents are entitled to a monthly subsidy of NT$3,000.
ENVIRONMENT
Trucks to get recorders
The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said it is planning to install recorders on hundreds of garbage trucks nationwide as part of government efforts to crack down on environmental violations. Wu Tien-chi (吳天基), head of the Department of Waste Management, said that to reinforce a crackdown on violations, such as dropping cigarette butts or belching exhaust smoke, a total of 960 garbage trucks around Taiwan would be fitted with recorders in the initial stage. Meanwhile, EPA Minister Stephen Shen (沈世宏) encouraged residents to report environmental violations.
CROSS-STRAIT TIES
Ties to get closer: Zheng
China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits Deputy Chairman Zheng Lizhong (鄭立中) predicted yesterday in Greater Tainan that cross-strait engagements would become even closer and wider, with many people from many sectors pitching in. Zheng said it was once “beyond the imagination” that 558 flights could fly directly across the Strait per week. After so many years of efforts, both sides now appreciate that peace and collaboration are the only options to end tensions and standoffs, he said. Zheng, who arrived in Taipei on Saturday, is visiting at the invitation of the National Policy Foundation, a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) think tank. His visit, primarily to southern Taiwan, comes less than a month after the Jan. 14 presidential and legislative elections. Prior to visiting Greater Tainan, he was in Greater Kaohsiung and Pingtung County over the weekend. Academics said his visit was mainly aimed at winning more trust from Taiwanese at the grassroots level, particularly those residing in southern Taiwan.
CRIME
Envoy offers condolences
Representative to the Philippines Raymond Wang (王樂生) expressed condolences on Sunday to the family of a Taiwanese woman living in the Southeast Asian country who was murdered there last month. The 29-year-old victim, surnamed Hsu (許), was robbed and shot in Manila’s Chinatown on Jan. 11. Her brother and father were also injured. According to a police investigation, the perpetrator was an active duty policeman. Wang said the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Manila had requested the country’s police to take the suspect into custody as soon as possible. He also urged the local government to install security monitoring systems to improve the city’s safety. The victim’s father, who is involved in the onion trade, has been based in the Philippines for several decades.
JUDICIARY
Chiayi tests ‘observer jury’
The Judicial Yuan held a briefing session in Chiayi City yesterday in preparation for a test run of a proposed “observer jury” system in the southern city. About 120 legal professionals and law experts attended the session, which was held at the Chiayi District Court. The “observer jury” system aims to allow the public to participate in the criminal trial process and enhance judiciary transparency. According to a draft bill released on Jan. 11 by the Judicial Yuan, the “observer jury” would apply to cases that involve offenses carrying a maximum penalty of death or life imprisonment. However, the jury would only express their opinion and would not render a verdict, the draft bill states. The Judicial Yuan hopes the legislature will pass the bill this year, paving the way for its implementation next year. After Chiayi, the Shihlin District Court in Taipei has been selected to test the system.
MILITARY
Open islets: Kinmen
Kinmen County Commissioner Li Wo-shi (李沃士) yesterday again urged the military to conditionally open two islets — Dadan (大膽) and Erdan (二膽) — to the public to help boost tourism in the outlying islands. The two islets have long been military outposts that are off-limits to the public. Dadan covers an area of 0.79km2, while Erdan measures 0.28km2. In response, the Ministry of National Defense said that the Executive Yuan would discuss whether to open Dadan and Erdan to the public and would make the final decision on the matter. Li has called for the opening of the two islets to the general public on the condition that the military’s operations would not be affected.
GREAT POWER COMPETITION: Beijing views its military cooperation with Russia as a means to push back against the joint power of the US and its allies, an expert said A recent Sino-Russian joint air patrol conducted over the waters off Alaska was designed to counter the US military in the Pacific and demonstrated improved interoperability between Beijing’s and Moscow’s forces, a national security expert said. National Defense University associate professor Chen Yu-chen (陳育正) made the comment in an article published on Wednesday on the Web site of the Journal of the Chinese Communist Studies Institute. China and Russia sent four strategic bombers to patrol the waters of the northern Pacific and Bering Strait near Alaska in late June, one month after the two nations sent a combined flotilla of four warships
‘LEADERS’: The report highlighted C.C. Wei’s management at TSMC, Lisa Su’s decisionmaking at AMD and the ‘rock star’ status of Nvidia’s Huang Time magazine on Thursday announced its list of the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence (AI), which included Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家), Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) and AMD chair and CEO Lisa Su (蘇姿丰). The list is divided into four categories: Leaders, Innovators, Shapers and Thinkers. Wei and Huang were named in the Leaders category. Other notable figures in the Leaders category included Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Meta CEO and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Su was listed in the Innovators category. Time highlighted Wei’s
EVERYONE’S ISSUE: Kim said that during a visit to Taiwan, she asked what would happen if China attacked, and was told that the global economy would shut down Taiwan is critical to the global economy, and its defense is a “here and now” issue, US Representative Young Kim said during a roundtable talk on Taiwan-US relations on Friday. Kim, who serves on the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, held a roundtable talk titled “Global Ties, Local Impact: Why Taiwan Matters for California,” at Santiago Canyon College in Orange County, California. “Despite its small size and long distance from us, Taiwan’s cultural and economic importance is felt across our communities,” Kim said during her opening remarks. Stanford University researcher and lecturer Lanhee Chen (陳仁宜), lawyer Lin Ching-chi
When Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) was wooing leaders from across Africa with a banquet on Wednesday night, King Mswati III of Eswatini was notably absent. That is because the kingdom — about the size of New Jersey and with just 1.2 million people — is one of Taiwan’s remaining dozen diplomatic allies. That means Eswatini does not participate in Xi’s Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, the centerpiece of China’s diplomatic outreach to Africa, which was held in Beijing this week. The landlocked nation, which sits between Mozambique and South Africa, is the last holdout in Beijing’s seven-plus decade mission to make Africa
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