A New Taipei City man has been fined NT$400,000 (US$13,221) and ordered into government quarantine after breaking home quarantine for a second time on Saturday.
The 25-year-old man, surnamed Chen (陳) returned to Taiwan on Sunday last week and was ordered to home quarantine until Sunday.
He was seen leaving his home on a scooter with his girlfriend on Saturday, three days after he was fined NT$200,000 for going outside to exercise, police said.
Photo: Hsu Sheng-lun, Taipei Times
Chen has now been placed in a quarantine center arranged by the district office and health center of the district where he lives, police said.
Police warned the public that breaking home quarantine could help spread COVID-19, and offenders would face heavy fines.
In related news, the Hsinchu Branch of the Ministry of Justice’s Administrative Enforcement Agency said it has established a contact window to expedite the handling and enforcement of home quarantine violation cases in Hsinchu city and county and Miaoli County.
People who fail to pay fines for contravening quarantine regulations within the required timeframe would be reported to the branch, which said it could force payment through compulsory seizure of properties, issuing restrictions on leaving the nation or going out to sea, or filing arrest and custody orders with the courts if necessary.
The branch yesterday said it had received its first case, a Thai woman who has failed to pay a NT$300,000 fine for breaking home quarantine on Sunday last week, and has notified border control authorities that she is not allowed to leave the country.
It would take further action after the woman finishes her quarantine period, the bureau said.
Six fines have been issued in Miaoli County for breaking home quarantines and four, totaling NT$40,000, have been paid so far, it said.
The Thai woman’s fine is one of the two unpaid NT$300,000 ones, it added.
There have been 11 fines imposed in Hsinchu City, and five — with a total value of NT$350,000 — have been paid, while the unpaid ones total NT$750,000, it said.
Hsinchu County has only one fine, a NT$1 million penalty imposed upon Lin Tung-ching (林東京) for “malicious” infractions of the Special Act on COVID-19 Prevention, Relief and Recovery (嚴重特殊傳染性肺炎防治及紓困振興特別條例) by changing residences multiple times after his return from China on Feb. 25 and visiting several locations in Taipei and New Taipei City during his home quarantine period.
He has not paid the fine, the bureau said.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is pushing for residents of Kinmen and Lienchiang counties to acquire Chinese ID cards in a bid to “blur national identities,” a source said. The efforts are part of China’s promotion of a “Kinmen-Xiamen twin-city living sphere, including a cross-strait integration pilot zone in China’s Fujian Province,” the source said. “The CCP is already treating residents of these outlying islands as Chinese citizens. It has also intensified its ‘united front’ efforts and infiltration of those islands,” the source said. “There is increasing evidence of espionage in Kinmen, particularly of Taiwanese military personnel being recruited by the
ENTERTAINERS IN CHINA: Taiwanese generally back the government being firm on infiltration and ‘united front’ work,’ the Asia-Pacific Elite Interchange Association said Most people support the government probing Taiwanese entertainers for allegedly “amplifying” the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda, a survey conducted by the Asia-Pacific Elite Interchange Association showed on Friday. Public support stood at 56.4 percent for action by the Mainland Affairs Council and the Ministry of Culture to enhance scrutiny on Taiwanese performers and artists who have developed careers in China while allegedly adhering to the narrative of Beijing’s propaganda that denigrates or harms Taiwanese sovereignty, the poll showed. Thirty-three percent did not support the action, it showed. The poll showed that 51.5 percent of respondents supported the government’s investigation into Taiwanese who have
Left-Handed Girl (左撇子女孩), a film by Taiwanese director Tsou Shih-ching (鄒時擎) and cowritten by Oscar-winning director Sean Baker, won the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution at the Cannes Critics’ Week on Wednesday. The award, which includes a 20,000 euro (US$22,656) prize, is intended to support the French release of a first or second feature film by a new director. According to Critics’ Week, the prize would go to the film’s French distributor, Le Pacte. "A melodrama full of twists and turns, Left-Handed Girl retraces the daily life of a single mother and her two daughters in Taipei, combining the irresistible charm of
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a