DIPLOMACY
Kin Moy posts farewell video
Former American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) director Kin Moy, who served in the position for three years, left a final farewell message to Taiwan on Facebook before heading back to the US with his family yesterday. Moy was unable to give interviews just before leaving Taiwan, but posted a video showing images of him and his family making their way to the airport, as well as photos and videos about Moy’s life in Taiwan. In the video, Moy said he recalled saying when he first came to Taiwan that the next years would be a crucial period for Taiwan-US relations. He said he was proud of how much has been achieved through the efforts of Americans and Taiwanese. Moy, 52, arrived in Taiwan in June 2015 and was the first AIT director of Asian heritage. Moy’s position is to be taken over in late August by Brent Christensen, a former AIT deputy director and seasoned diplomat with extensive experience in the region.
EARTHQUAKES
Magnitude 4.5 hits Taitung
A magnitude 4.5 quake struck eastern Taiwan at 2:32am yesterday, the Central Weather Bureau said. No damage or casualties were reported. The epicenter of the earthquake was about 24.8km north of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 8.1km, the bureau’s Seismology Center said. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung’s Chihshang Township (池上), where it measured 4 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. On Wednesday, a magnitude 4.3 earthquake rocked southern Taiwan at 8:41pm. The epicenter was about 6.5km northwest of Tainan City Hall at a depth of 5.6km, with the highest intensity recorded in the city’s Yongkang District (永康), where it reached five on the intensity scale, the bureau said.
TOURISM
More visit Vietnam
Taiwanese made 338,956 visits to Vietnam in the first half of the year, 13.8 percent more than in the same period last year, Vietnamese National Administration of Tourism statistics showed. Taiwanese were the fifth-largest group of visitors to the country in the six-month period. In June alone, Taiwanese visited Vietnam 55,406 times, the statistics showed. Chinese were the biggest group, with nearly 2.57 million visits. They were followed by South Koreans and Japanese travelers, who made 1.71 million and 400,000 visits respectively. Vietnam aims to attract 15.5 million foreign visitors and 78 million domestic trippers this year to achieve tourism turnover of about US$26.8 billion, the agency said.
RAILWAYS
Man dies after 12.5m fall
A passenger fell to his death from a 12.5m-high platform at the Tainan High-Speed Rail Station on Friday in the first such accident in the high-speed railway’s history. Rescue workers arrived at the scene to find that the man displayed no vital signs. The man fell onto a pedestrian walkway in the station’s parking lot. The 21-year-old victim, surnamed Huang (黃), purchased a ticket from Tainan to Chiayi, but fell from the northbound platform onto the road below, investigators said. The barrier around the platform is 1.23m high and not easy for an adult to accidentally topple over, police said. One witness told police that he saw Huang climb the barrier and sit on it before falling. Huang’s father told police that his son had not mentioned any suicidal thoughts and had not shown any unusual behavior.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
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