CRIME
NT$43m in cigarettes seized
The Coast Guard Administration has seized two shipments of smuggled cigarettes in Taichung and New Taipei City with a total market value of NT$43 million (US$1.41 million), coast guard officials said yesterday. Alerted by a tip-off, coast guard officials in Tainan found that a Taiwan-registered cargo ship that usually travels between Kaohsiung and Japan departed from Keelung Port on Saturday, but applied to enter Taichung Port on Sunday under the pretext of maintenance and resupply, said Ou Ling-jia (歐凌嘉), head of the coast guard’s central branch. A team of coast guard officers from several counties early yesterday found four containers holding about 79,900 cartons of untaxed cigarettes with an estimated market value of NT$35 million. Meanwhile, the northern branch of the coast guard on Sunday seized 9,447 cartons of smuggled cigarettes worth NT$8 million at Yanliao Beach (鹽寮海灘) in New Taipei City, which were believed to have been unloaded from two fishing boats, officials said.
MILITARY
Tsai promotes 22 officers
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has approved promotions for 22 senior military personnel, the Ministry of National Defense announced yesterday. Tsai promoted four officers to the rank of two-star general or lieutenant-general, while the other 18 were elevated to the rank of one-star general or major-general and vice admiral, the ministry said in a statement. Tsai is to attend a conferral ceremony for the officers in Taipei on Thursday. The promotions are to officially take effect next month, the ministry said.
TRAVEL
Travel envoys wanted: Japan
Japan’s Higashihiroshima City is seeking travel ambassadors from Taiwan to visit for four days as part of a tourism promotion effort, the city government said in a press release on Sunday. Applications will be open online until 3pm on July 23. Four people will be selected and offered free return tickets and accommodation in Higashihiroshima, a city best known for its sake. The selected ambassadors are to travel in pairs from Nov. 9 to Nov. 12 and are to be joined by a reporter, according to a Japanese travel Web site, which has teamed up with the city government to launch the tourism program. The names of the successful applicants will be posted on the travel Web site at 3pm on Aug. 20. Detailed information is available online at chugoku.letsgojp.com/archives/323886.
NATIONAL DEFENSE
Security a priority: Huang
Information security is a part of national security and a key priority for the government, Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang (黃重諺) said yesterday. His comments came in the wake of a Financial Times report that said Beijing has been ramping up coercive measures against the government since President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) election in 2016. Huang said that the National Security Council and the Department of Cyber Security plan to create a mechanism that ensures information security at the national level, establish an information security team to safeguard the nation’s cybersafety and promote the development of information security technology for both national defense and commercial purposes. Many other democratic nations have experienced similar increases in China’s aggressiveness, which has included cyberattacks aimed at stealing sensitive government data and technology secrets, he said.
IMMIGRATION
Vietnam spouses main group
Vietnam last year remained the main source of foreign spouses in Taiwan, with 3,907 Vietnamese becoming naturalized citizens, the Ministry of the Interior said. It said that Vietnamese accounted for 72.8 percent of all residents who gained citizenship last year, with most of them being spouses of Taiwanese. Of the 5,366 citizens naturalized last year, 3,907 were from Vietnam, 533 from Indonesia, 471 from the Philippines, 122 from Thailand, 56 from Malaysia, 40 from Myanmar, 12 from Cambodia and six from Singapore, ministry data showed. The total number represented a 65 percent increase from 2016, but a 59.4 percent decline from 2008, the ministry said. Of the people who gained citizenship last year, 91.7 percent were women, 86.9 percent were spouses and 95.9 percent were from Southeast Asian countries. In 2015, the number of people who were naturalized was 3,252, a record low in a declining annual trend since 2008, when the number was 13,230, the data showed.
RAILWAYS
Alishan line to change hands
The management of the Alishan Forest Railway in Chiayi is to be moved to the Forestry Bureau of the Council of Agriculture from Sunday, the bureau said. The railway is to be operated by the bureau’s newly established Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office instead of the Taiwan Railways Administration, which has been running the service since May 1, 2013. The new office plans to raise starting salaries and establish a performance bonus system to encourage its employees, the bureau said. Meanwhile, it remains unclear whether services will resume on one of the railway’s main lines — the Chiayi City to Shizihlu (十字路) stretch — before the new operator takes over.
‘JOINT SWORD’: Whatever President Lai says in his Double Ten speech, China would use it as a pretext to launch ‘punishment’ drills for his ‘separatist’ views, an official said China is likely to launch military drills this week near Taiwan, using President William Lai’s (賴清德) upcoming national day speech as a pretext to pressure the nation to accept its sovereignty claims, Taiwanese officials said. China in May launched “punishment” drills around Taiwan shortly after Lai’s inauguration, in what Beijing said was a response to “separatist acts,” sending heavily armed warplanes and staging mock attacks as state media denounced newly inaugurated Lai. The May drills were dubbed “Joint Sword — 2024A” and drew concerns from capitals, including Washington. Lai is to deliver a key speech on Thursday in front of the Presidential Office
Taiwan was listed in 14th place among the world's wealthiest country in terms of GDP per capita, in the latest rankings released on Monday by Forbes magazine. Taiwan's GDP per capita was US$76,860, which put it at No. 14 on the list of the World's 100 Richest Countries this year, one spot above Hong Kong with US$75,130. The magazine's list of the richest countries in the world is compiled based on GDP per capita data, as estimated by the IMF. However, for a more precise measure of a nation's wealth, the magazine also considers purchasing power parity, which is a metric used to
Taipei’s Ximending (西門町) shopping area welcomed the most international visitors, followed by Taipei 101, Songshan Cultural and Creative Park and Yangmingshan National Park (陽明山國家公園), a list of the city’s most popular tourist attractions published by the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism showed. As of August, 69.22 million people had visited Taipei’s main tourism spots, a 76 percent increase from 39.33 million in the same period last year, department data showed. Ximending had 20.21 million visitors, followed by Taipei 101 at 8.09 million, Songshan Cultural and Creative Park at 6.28 million, Yangmingshan at 4.51 million and the Red House Theater (西門紅樓) in
NINTH MONTH: There were 11,792 births in Taiwan last month and 15,563 deaths, or a mortality rate of 8.11 per 1,000 people, household registration data showed Taiwan’s population was 23,404,138 as of last month, down 2,470 from August, the ninth consecutive month this year that the nation has reported a drop, the Ministry of the Interior said on Wednesday. The population last month was 162 fewer than the same month last year, a decline of 0.44 per day, the ministry said, citing household registration data. Taiwan reported 11,792 births last month, or 3.7 births per day, up 149 from August, it said, adding that the monthly birthrate was 6.15 per 1,000 people. The jurisdictions with the highest birthrates were Yunlin County at 14.62 per 1,000 people, Penghu County (8.61
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