WEATHER
Rain hammers Kaohsiung
Ten of Kaohsiung’s 38 districts received the highest rainfall in the nation during yesterday’s downpours, after the Central Weather Bureau issued advisories for heavy or extremely heavy rain for eight cities and counties in central and southern Taiwan. The advisories were issued at 4am, with Tainan, Kaohsiung and Pingtung warned to expect extremely heavy rain — meaning 200mm over 24 hours or 100mm in a three-hour period — while Changhua, Yunlin, Chiayi city and county, and Taitung were told to expect heavy rain, meaning accumulated rainfall of 80mm or more over a 24-hour period, or 40mm within an hour. Between midnight on Wednesday to 8:30am yesterday, the Kaohsiung districts of Gangshan (岡山), Lujhu (路竹), Dashe (大社), Cianjhen (前鎮), Cieding (茄萣), Nanzih (楠梓), Linyuan (林園), Ciaotou (橋頭), Cijin (旗津) — which registered more than 300mm — and Yongan(永安), which recorded 296mm, were the worst affected, the bureau said.
CRIME
Sun An-tso faces new charge
Sun An-tso (孫安佐), who was deported from the US after being jailed for 238 days for threatening to shoot up his Pennsylvania high school in early 2018, was indicted by the Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office on Monday with attempting to manufacture firearms in the US. The office said that Sun, the son of showbiz couple Sun Peng (孫鵬) and Di Ying (狄鶯), could face a jail term of at least three-and-a-half-years under the Controlling Guns, Ammunition and Knives Act (槍砲彈藥刀械管制條例). While the charge is related to the indictments that US authorities filed against Sun An-tso, it is not the same, so the time he served in the US would not count toward a jail term in Taiwan if he is convicted in Taiwan, the indictment said. Police in Pennsylvania had found ammunition and various firearms in his bedroom, including a 9mm handgun made with parts that he had bought online. He pleaded guilty to both state and federal charges against him, and was deported by the US in December 2018. Upon his arrival in Taiwan on Dec. 11, he was taken directly to the Shilin office for questioning over possible contraventions of Taiwanese laws. He was released without bail, but barred from leaving the nation. Di Ying on Wednesday issued a statement expressing the couple’s regret at the prosecutors’ decision. She urged the Shilin District Court to be just in her son’s trial and the media not to produce exaggerated reports about her son’s case.
TRANSPORTATION
More trains for holiday
The Taiwan Railways Administration is adding nearly 200 more scheduled runs between Sept. 30 and Oct. 5 to meet an expected surge in demand for tickets during the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday. An additional 185 train trips are being added, including eight Fu-hsing semi-express trains from Shulin Station (樹林) in New Taipei City to Hualien from Oct. 1 to 4, the agency said on Tuesday. Two additional trains are to run between Shulin and Taitung stations during off-peak hours during the holiday, with fares for those services to be discounted by 30 percent, it said. Six more Tze-chiang express trains have been scheduled on the Hualien and Taitung routes on Sept. 30, Oct. 1, Oct. 3 and Oct. 4, it said, adding that its ticketing system will require passenger’s name and national ID number for bookings on those trains so that Hualien and Taitung county residents receive priority in buying tickets.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard