Wed, May 10, 2017 page4

• Taiwan News Quick Take

  • Staff writer, with CNA
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  HISTORY

  Chiang documents released

  More than 263,000 declassified documents pertaining to Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) are now available online, Academia Historica said yesterday. The files are accessible on the institution’s archive (ahonline.drnh.gov.tw), it said in a statement. The files, 61.65 percent of which were formerly listed as confidential, were uploaded to the archive in several batches between January and last month after being individually reviewed between August and December last year. They represent 98.8 percent of all existing documents related to Chiang, the institute said. The remainder not yet online includes some that cannot be posted due to copyright restrictions (0.74 percent) and some that are restricted due to privacy concerns (0.44 percent), while the rest (0.02 percent) must remain permanently confidential to protect intelligence sources, it said.

  NATIONAL DEFENSE

  Frigates arriving soon

  Two Perry-class guided missile frigates purchased from the US are expected to arrive in Kaohsiung on Saturday and be commissioned into service next year, military sources said yesterday. The two frigates, built in the 1980s, were formally transferred to the Republic of China Navy at a ceremony on March 9 in South Carolina. Scheduled to arrive at Zuoying Military Harbor, they are to join the navy’s 146th fleet, which is based on Penghu and is responsible for patrolling the Taiwan Strait, the sources said. Weapons system testing and personnel training will be conducted before the two frigates are formally commissioned into service, the navy has said, adding that a commissioning ceremony has been scheduled for July next year.

  CRIME

  Illegal job brokers arrested

  An Indonesian woman and 19 others were arrested on Monday in New Taipei City on suspicion of illegally brokering jobs for illegal workers and remitting funds overseas. National Immigration Agency officials said the woman, who runs a store specializing in products from Indonesia, was suspected of sending Indonesians who had overstayed their visas to work in hospitals as nurses and cleaners. Some of them also work in the woman’s restaurant or as prostitutes, according to officials with an agency task force investigating a human trafficking ring suspected of using drugs to control Indonesian sex workers. The woman and her brother, both surnamed Wang (王), were among eight people arrested in connection with the task force’s investigation. After searching several locations, the task force also arrested 11 illegal workers and another foreign national whose visa had expired, the officials said. They said the Indonesian store remits an average of NT$100,000 (US$3,305) to Indonesia per day, or about NT$36.5 million a year.

  TOURISM

  Cross-strait Kinmen walk set

  A cross-strait walk will be held in Kinmen on Saturday as part of efforts to promote tourism in the outlying island group, the county government said yesterday. Five hundred Chinese visitors from Xiamen and 200 Kinmen residents are expected to take part in the 6km walk, the Kinmen Association of Travel Agents said. The walk will start at Zhaishan Tunnel (翟山坑道) at 1pm and take the participants to a number of attractions before returning to the tunnel, the Kinmen Tourism Department said. The event has been organized by the department, Xiamen’s Tourism Development Commission and travel agents from the two sides.

  NATIONAL SECURITY

  Detention extended

  A Chinese man accused of espionage is to be detained for another two months while prosecutors continue their investigation, the Taipei District Court ruled on Monday. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office asked for more time, saying that 29-year-old Zhou Hongxu (周泓旭) was likely to flee the country or collude to destroy evidence. Zhou, from Liaoning Province, was enrolled in an MBA program at National Chengchi University in Taipei from 2012 until last year. He returned to Taiwan in February to work as a management investor. He was detained on March 10 for allegedly trying to gather classified information from schools and government offices. Investigators said that Zhou was allegedly in contact with a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official, whom he had met when a student, and was trying to persuade the official to hand over classified information in exchange for free trips abroad. Zhou has denied the accusations.

  TRANSPORTATION

  Review of big bike access

  Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) said a meeting is scheduled for Friday to discuss changing regulations to allow large motorcycles on freeways. Experts, local government officials and bikers’ rights advocates have been invited. At present, large motorcycles — those with an engine of 550cc or larger — are only allowed on a 5.6km spur of the Chiang Wei-shui Freeway (National Freeway No. 3), which connects Taipei and New Taipei City’s Shenkeng District (深坑), on a trial basis. However, surveillance footage has shown that many of the bikers who have used the spur swerved in and out of traffic, as many people expected, Wang said. It is such behavior that has led to restrictions on big bikes on freeways, Wang added.
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