DIPLOMACY
Ma to visit allies
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) will visit Panama and El Salvador later this month on what will be his 10th overseas trip since becoming president, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. Ma is scheduled to depart on June 29 and head first to Panama, where he will attend the inauguration of president-elect Juan Carlos Varela on July 1, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Simon Ko (柯森耀) said. Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) visited El Salvador earlier this month to attend the inauguration of Salvadorean President Sanchez Ceren. Ma’s plane will transit in Hawaii on the way to Central America and stop over in San Francisco on the way back, Ko said. Ma is due to return home on July 5.
TRANSPORTATION
Deal inked with Delaware
Taiwan signed an agreement with the US state of Delaware on Wednesday to recognize each other’s drivers’ licenses. The pact with Delaware is the seventh of its kind with a US state after similar ones with Maryland, Idaho, Florida, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas. The latest agreement was signed by Representative to the US Shen Lyu-shun (沈呂巡) and Delaware Governor Jack Markell. Effective immediately, Taiwanese who hold legal resident status in Delaware and a valid Taiwanese driver’s license can obtain a Delaware driver’s license without taking a test. Holders of a Delaware driver’s license can enjoy the same treatment in this country.
TRAVEL
E-passports promoted
More than 70 percent of Republic of China passport holders are using e-passports equipped with features that make forgery difficult, a foreign ministry official said yesterday. Among the 11.46 million valid passports in circulation, about 71 percent of them are e-passports, Bureau of Consular Affairs Deputy Director-General Michael Yiin (尹新垣) told a regular news briefing in Taipei. The bureau has recently made a promotional video aimed at encouraging Taiwanese to apply for the e-passports, which are also called biometric passports. An e-passport looks like a traditional one, but contains an electronic chip that is encoded with the holder’s personal information. Taiwan has been issuing e-passports since Dec. 29, 2008. The video, which was released in Mandarin, Hoklo (also known as Taiwanese) and Hakka, provides information on how to keep the passport safe and how to use the online appointment system for passport applications, Yiin said. The bureau issued 1.85 million passports last year and said this year’s number is expected to surpass that figure, he said. The bureau issued 830,000 passports from January to last month, Yiin said.
MEDIA
Clinton memoir published
The Chinese-language version of former US secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton’s memoir Hard Choices was released in Taiwan on Wednesday, the same day the original version was launched in the US. Hard Choices is Clinton’s account of the choices and challenges she faced during her term as secretary of state from 2009 to last year. “I wrote this book to honor the exceptional diplomats and development experts whom I had the honor of leading as America’s sixty-seventh secretary of state,” Clinton wrote in the book. “I wrote it for anyone anywhere who wonders whether the US still has what it takes to lead. For me, the answer is a resounding ‘Yes.’” The Chinese-language version was published by the Chinese-language Business Weekly magazine.
UPGRADE: The Kang Ding-class frigate is replacing its Chaparall missiles with Tien Chien II and Hua Yang VLS, which would provide it with long-range, 360° air defense Taiwan plans to produce 1,200 to 1,376 Hai Chien II missiles (海劍二, Sea Sword II) — also known as TC-2N — to serve as the standard air defense system of the navy’s surface combatant fleet, a source said yesterday. Last week, the Hai Chien II, the naval version of the Tien Kung II missile (天劍二, Sky Sword II), completed a live-fire test in waters off the National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology’s Jiupeng facility (九鵬) in Pingtung County’s Manjhou Township (滿州). The MIM72 Chaparral and other dated air defense missiles that currently arm Taiwanese ships have inadequate range to combat Chinese
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, returned to Taiwan last night after being deported from the US. She is to stand trial in Taiwan for charges involving embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes. The Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said it took her into custody at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and would first question her before transferring her to the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office. She was arrested upon disembarking a flight from San Francisco that landed shortly before 7pm. Liou absconded to the US in 2019 after jumping bail
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