DIPLOMACY
France, Taiwan honor pilot
France and Taiwan have jointly erected a monument to commemorate jet fighter pilot Colonel Wang Tung-yi (王同義), who died when his plane crashed during training in eastern France last year, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. The monument was unveiled on Thursday to mark the first anniversary of the accident and was erected at the site of the crash, the ministry said. The unveiling was attended by French Air Force officials and Taiwanese foreign affairs and military officials based in Europe, the ministry added. Following Wang’s death, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) issued a citation to commend the pilot’s outstanding performance and dedication. Wang was also awarded a medal and posthumously promoted to the rank of colonel. The 37-year-old pilot was praised for his heroic efforts in the final moments of the flight, when he maneuvered his Mirage 2000-5 jet clear of residential communities in the Luxeuil-les-Bains area to prevent loss of life. His fighter then crashed into a wooded area.
EDUCATION
Talks on Germany to be held
A series of seminars are to be held in Taipei this month to promote studying in Germany and working for German companies, the German Institute Taipei said. “The aim is to provide insight into a wide array of topics, from career prospects with German companies in Taiwan and in Germany, to visa regulations and German language tests,” the institute said in a statement. The seminar series will start tomorrow with an event titled “Meet the CEO,” in which 70 university graduates are invited to meet executives from four German companies’ offices in Taiwan: Bayer Taiwan Co, DMG Mori Seiki Taiwan Co, Robert Bosch Taiwan Co and Siemens Ltd Taiwan, the statement said, without providing information about the other seminars. About 250 German companies have set up businesses in Taiwan, especially in the machinery, electronics, automotive and chemicals sectors, the institute said.
BUSINESS
Taisugar denies pig rumors
Taiwan Sugar Corp (Taisugar) has denied rumors that it is involved in pig farming in China through technology-based investments, saying that it complies with domestic laws banning such practices. The Greater Tainan-based state-run enterprise brings 350,000 pigs into the Taiwanese market every year and is one of the nation’s leading pig breeder. Liu Tsung-hsien (劉宗憲), the head of Taisugar’s public relations department, said that by law, Taiwanese companies are prohibited from entering the pig farming business in China either through investments or technological cooperation. As a state-run company, Taisugar could not possibly break the law and surreptitiously obtain a stake in Chinese pig farms through technology transfers, Liu said. The accusations were made by a legislator who said that Taisugar has wanted to break into the Chinese market for a long time and was already raising pigs in the country through technology-based investments. Despite denying Taisugar’s presence in China, Liu did say that there are many incentives to invest in the Chinese sector because pigs fetch better prices there than they do in Taiwan. He also said that Taisugar executives have visited China’s Jiangsu and Shandong provinces to learn about the pig farming industry there.
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
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