DEFENSE
‘Liaoning’ sails through Strait
A Chinese aircraft carrier on Friday sailed through the Taiwan Strait without showing any abnormal activity, the Ministry of National Defense said. The Liaoning sailed southwest along the Strait’s median line and was expected to leave the air defense identification zone at 9pm on Friday, the ministry said. The carrier was accompanied by a number of other combat ships after sailing from its home port of Qingdao in Shandong Province, and was expected to conduct a cross-regional ocean voyage, the ministry said, adding that it was closely monitoring the situation. The Liaoning was last seen in the Strait in July last year, heading northeast after attending the 20th anniversary of the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong from the UK to China.
EDUCATION
Ex-minister to be NTU head
Former National Development Council minister Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔) on Friday was elected president of National Taiwan University (NTU). Kuan was chosen over four other candidates: Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences director Chou Mei-yin (周美吟), Administrative Affairs vice president and Department of Physics professor Chang Ching-ray (張慶瑞), Graduate Institute of Networking and Multimedia professor Chen Ming-hsien (陳銘憲) and Department of History professor Chen Jo-shui (陳弱水). Kuan is to take over for Yang Pan-chyr (楊泮池), who chose to step down after his term expired in June last year. Kuan, who received a doctorate degree in economics from the University of California, San Diego, served as council minister from 2014 to 2015 and was head of the Council for Economic Planning and Development from 2013 to 2014.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Policy site adds Vietnamese
A Vietnamese-language section has been added to the New Southbound Policy Portal to improve communication about the policy and boost ties with Vietnam, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The portal compiles news about government policies and media reports related to the push to develop closer ties with Southeast Asian nations. It also links to the Web sites of the representative offices of the policy’s target countries, making news about the nations’ development, local happenings and consular information easier to access. As part of ongoing government efforts to raise regional awareness of the portal, an Indonesian-language version (nspp.mofa.gov.tw/nsppid) was launched on Nov. 28 and the section in Vietnamese (nspp.mofa.gov.tw/nsppvn) was set up on Friday, the ministry said.
HEALTH
Chickens culled in Yunlin
A chicken farm in Yunlin County has been infected with a subtype of the highly pathogenic H5 avian influenza virus, leading to the culling of 10,461 birds, the city’s Animal and Plant Disease Control Center said on Friday. Center official Cheng An-kuo (鄭安國) said it collected tissue samples on Tuesday after receiving a report of abnormal deaths of about 12,500 chickens. Samples taken from the farm were then analyzed and determined to be avian flu, Cheng said. It was the second culling to occur in Yunlin County this week, following the killing of 15,239 chickens at a farm in the county’s Yuanchang Township (元長) on Monday, Council of Agriculture data showed. Avian flu generally peaks during the cool season from January to April, Cheng said, urging farmers to report any cases of abnormal poultry deaths to the authorities as quickly as possible to prevent it from spreading.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday condemned Chinese and Russian authorities for escalating regional tensions, citing Chinese warplanes crossing the Taiwan Strait’s median line and joint China-Russia military activities breaching South Korea’s air defense identification zone (KADIZ) over the past two days. A total of 30 Chinese warplanes crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait on Thursday and Friday, entering Taiwan’s northern and southwestern airspace in coordination with 15 naval vessels and three high-altitude balloons, the MAC said in a statement. The Chinese military also carried out another “joint combat readiness patrol” targeting Taiwan on Thursday evening, the MAC said. On
INTIMIDATION: In addition to the likely military drills near Taiwan, China has also been waging a disinformation campaign to sow division between Taiwan and the US Beijing is poised to encircle Taiwan proper in military exercise “Joint Sword-2024C,” starting today or tomorrow, as President William Lai (賴清德) returns from his visit to diplomatic allies in the Pacific, a national security official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said that multiple intelligence sources showed that China is “highly likely” to launch new drills around Taiwan. Although the drills’ scale is unknown, there is little doubt that they are part of the military activities China initiated before Lai’s departure, they said. Beijing at the same time is conducting information warfare by fanning skepticism of the US and
NO RIGHT: After 38 years of martial law under the former KMT government, the KMT is the least qualified to accuse others of harboring such intentions, DPP officials said The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday accused the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) of creating a stir on social media by implying that the government supports martial law, adding that the KMT is the least qualified to criticize others after decades of martial law in Taiwan under the former KMT regime. After South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol late on Tuesday night declared martial law (which was rescinded six hours later), the DPP caucus issued a statement on Thread saying that Taiwan’s legislature was facing a situation similar to that in South Korea, which had prompted Yoon to declare martial law. “The South
‘FACT-BASED’: There is no ban, and 2 million Taiwanese have traveled to China this year, which is more than the 285,000 Chinese who visited Taiwan, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday accused China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) of shifting the blame for Beijing’s tourism ban on Taiwan, continuing a war of words that started in the past week. The council’s remark came hours after its Chinese counterpart on Friday accused the government of creating barriers to the resumption of reciprocal group tours across the Taiwan Strait. The TAO accused the MAC of releasing untruthful information and dragging its feet on the tourism sector’s call to establishing ferries linking Pingtung County to China’s Pingtan Island. The MAC failed to respond to overtures to restore direct flights and raised the
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