DEFENSE
Chinese aircraft spotted
A Chinese Y-8 anti-submarine aircraft yesterday entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone, but left the area after the military responded. The incident is the latest in a string of similar incursions by the Chinese military that has become an almost daily occurrence in the past few months. On Friday, a Chinese Y-8 anti-submarine plane and another Y-8 surveillance aircraft entered the zone, said the Ministry of National Defense, which in September devoted a section on its Web site to publicizing the movements of Chinese military planes near Taiwan. In response, the air force scrambled planes to monitor the Chinese aircraft, issued radio warnings and mobilized air defenses until the Chinese planes left the area, the ministry said.
WEATHER
Snow expected next week
Snow might fall in mountains higher than 1,000m in northern Taiwan on Wednesday next week, due to abundant moisture and a cold surge, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. The cold and wet air would send temperatures to 8°C to 11°C in northern Taiwan, while mountainous and coastal areas could have lows of 5°C to 8°C, the bureau said. National Central University adjunct associate professor of atmospheric sciences Wu Der-rong (吳德榮) said people could see snow at Datunshan (大屯山) and Qixingshan (七星山) in Taipei, but said it would not be much. It might also snow on Yilan County’s Taipingshan (太平山) late on Wednesday next week and early the next day, Wu said. Temperatures on mountains from 800m to 2,000m above sea level could dip to minus-2°C to minus-4°C, which could lead to other kinds of precipitation, such as rime ice, he said.
MEDIA
Outlets station in Taiwan
Seventy-one foreign media outlets have established branches in Taiwan, with 34 additional foreign journalists operating in the nation this year, following restrictions on international media in China, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday. Since China in March refused to renew credentials for certain foreign journalists or otherwise restricted their work, the ministry has welcomed them to Taiwan, assisting them in the application process, it said. As of Friday, 27 journalists from 18 newly arrived media outlets and seven from outlets already established in Taiwan have started operating in the nation, it said. Twenty-one journalists are from US media, four from French media, three from Singaporean outlets, two from British media, and the others are from Australia, Germany, Switzerland and Qatar, it said. There are 124 foreign journalists operating in Taiwan, it said, adding that the increase shows that the nation’s freedom of the press is widely recognized by the world.
HEALTH
University donates test kits
Hualien-based Tzu Chi University has donated 95,000 rapid COVID-19 antibody test kits, which it developed with Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital and Academia Sinica, to Indonesia, Honduras and Bolivia, the university said on Thursday. About 30,000 kits were donated to Indonesia in September, 25,000 to Honduras in November and 40,000 were shipped to Bolivia this month, the university said. It plans to send 35,000 kits to the Dominican Republic, it said. The kits can in 10 minutes deliver results for IgM and IgG antibodies, which are sometimes used to differentiate active and past infections, it said. The Centers for Disease Control has approved the kits for production, it added.
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry