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.
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
WEATHER Typhoon forming: CWA A tropical depression is expected to form into a typhoon as early as today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, adding that the storm’s path remains uncertain. Before the weekend, it would move toward the Philippines, the agency said. Some time around Monday next week, it might reach a turning point, either veering north toward waters east of Taiwan or continuing westward across the Philippines, the CWA said. Meanwhile, the eye of Typhoon Kalmaegi was 1,310km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, as of 2am yesterday, it said. The storm is forecast to move through central
UNKNOWN TRAJECTORY: The storm could move in four possible directions, with the fourth option considered the most threatening to Taiwan, meteorologist Lin De-en said A soon-to-be-formed tropical storm east of the Philippines could begin affecting Taiwan on Wednesday next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. The storm, to be named Fung-wong (鳳凰), is forecast to approach Taiwan on Tuesday next week and could begin affecting the weather in Taiwan on Wednesday, CWA forecaster Huang En-hung (黃恩鴻) said, adding that its impact might be amplified by the combined effect with the northeast monsoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the system’s center was 2,800km southeast of Oluanbi (鵝鑾鼻). It was moving northwest at 18kph. Meteorologist Lin De-en (林得恩) on Facebook yesterday wrote that the would-be storm is surrounded by
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