CRIME
Two charged with espionage
Two defense contractors have been charged with for spying on the nation’s military for China, the High Prosecutors’ Office said on Monday. The two men, surnamed Chang (張) and Lin (林), established an engineering firm in New Taipei City in 2016, with Chang as the firm’s owner and Lin as his main business partner. The firm had since bid on Ministry of National Defense public tenders and obtained numerous military contracts. The two suspects were detained after the ministry’s counterintelligence department discovered anomalies during a regular review of military tenders and asked the national security division of the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau to jointly launch an investigation into the case, the bureau said. The investigation found that Chang and Lin allegedly took advantage of the nature of their work to gather military secrets and confidential information on national security. They also visited China frequently and received money from unknown sources, the bureau said. The two suspects were apprehended in June and their detention was approved by the High Court.
EARTHQUAKES
Second temblor hits Hualien
A magnitude 4.3 earthquake shook eastern Taiwan at 8:47am yesterday, the Central Weather Bureau. The earthquake was centered 28.7km southwest of Hualien County Hall in Shoufeng Township (壽豐) at a depth of 6.2km, the bureau’s Seismology Center said. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effects of an earthquake, was highest in Hualien, where it measured 4 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale, while it measured 2 in Yilan County and 1 in Nantou County. No immediate damage or injuries were reported. It was the second earthquake in Hualien since the beginning of this month.
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
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday confirmed that Chinese students visiting Taiwan at the invitation of the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation were almost all affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). During yesterday’s meeting convened by the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) asked whether the visit was a way to spread China’s so-called “united front” rhetoric, to which MAC Deputy Ministry Shen You-chung (沈有忠) responded with the CCP comment. The MAC noticed that the Chinese individuals visiting Taiwan, including those in sports, education, or religion, have had increasingly impressive backgrounds, demonstrating that the
MILITARY EXERCISES: China is expected to conduct more drills in the region after President William Lai’s office announced he would stopover in Hawaii and Guam China is likely to launch military drills in the coming days near Taiwan, using President William Lai’s (賴清德) upcoming trip to the Pacific and scheduled US transit as a pretext, regional security officials said. Lai is to begin a visit to Taipei’s three diplomatic allies in the Pacific on Saturday, and sources told Reuters he was planning stops in Hawaii and the US territory of Guam in a sensitive trip shortly after the US presidential election. Lai’s office has yet to confirm details of what are officially “stop-overs” in the US, but is expected to do so shortly before he departs, sources
Tasa Meng Corp (采盟), which runs Taiwan Duty Free, could be fined up to NT$1 million (US$30,737) after the owner and employees took center stage in a photograph with government officials and the returning Premier12 baseball champions at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Monday evening. When Taiwan’s national baseball team arrived home fresh from their World Baseball Softball Confederation Premier12 championship victory in Tokyo, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) was at the airport with Chinese Professional Baseball League commissioner Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) to welcome back the team. However, after Hsiao and Tsai took a photograph with the team, Tasa Meng chairwoman Ku
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