HEALTH
Blood donations urged
The Taiwan Blood Services Foundation on Friday issued an urgent call for blood donations, as the supply in several areas had fallen below the officially designated safe level of seven days. The shortages were most severe in Taipei and Hsinchu, which had an average stock of less than three days, with supplies of blood types AB and O running especially low, the foundation said, adding Kaohsiung and Taichung also had shortages, with average remaining stocks of 4.6 days and 5.1 days respectively. Blood reserves in northern Taiwan were especially low, likely because of a drop in donations due to the cold weather in the past few days, said Hung Ying-sheng (洪英聖), a representative of the foundation.
RAILWAYS
Holiday ticket sale starts
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp is to start selling tickets for the Lunar New Year holiday tomorrow, the company said. A total of 1,820 of its trains would run from Feb. 8 to Feb. 17 to meet demand over the week-long holiday, which starts on Feb. 11, including 441 extra trains, 236 southbound and 205 northbound, the company said, adding that this is a 30 percent boost in capacity. Passengers can book tickets through its T-Express mobile ticketing system, its Web site, by telephone, at most chain convenience stores and at THSRC ticketing counters, it said. The company would offer its usual discounts of 10 to 35 percent for university students and for purchases made five to 28 days in advance of the travel date, it added.
SOCIETY
Fewer married last year
The number of marriages in Taiwan last year dropped to the lowest in more than a decade, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. Ministry data showed 121,702 new registered marriages, a decline of 12,822 from in 2019 and the lowest number since 2009, when 116,392 couples married amid a global financial crisis. Of the new marriages registered last year, 2,387 were between same-sex couples, a slight decline from 2019, when Taiwan legalized same-sex marriage and 2,939 couples wed — 928 male and 2,011 female, the data showed. Last year, 674 same-sex marriages were between men and 1,713 between women, it showed. The number of divorces was 51,680, down 2,793 from 2019, with 371 among same-sex couples, the data showed.
CRIME
Money transfer ring busted
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday indicted three people for alleged breaches of the Banking Act (銀行法) related to an illegal underground money transfer network targeting migrant workers from the Philippines. The three are a Taiwanese surnamed Yang (楊) who operates an overseas labor agency and an import-export business based in Taipei, his employee surnamed Chen (陳), and the Taiwan branch manager of a Philippine money transfer company, also surnamed Chen. In 2017, the three allegedly began offering illegal money transfer services to migrant workers and more recently to overseas Taiwanese businesses, the prosecutors said, adding that their operations allegedly generated profits of about NT$400 million (US$14.06 million). The prosecutors said that they have issued a warrant for the arrest of another person of interest surnamed Wang (王), who has been in hiding in the Philippines since local authorities began investigating the case in January last year.
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