Chen recall election date set
The Central Election Commission (CEC) yesterday tentatively scheduled the recall election of Taiwan Statebuilding Party Legislator Chen Po-wei (陳柏惟) for Aug. 28. Chen, a legislative newcomer representing Taichung’s second electoral district, was elected last year. The recall campaign, which has received the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) backing, was initiated by Yang Wen-yuan (楊文元), a voter in his constituency. CEC Chairman Lee Chin-yung (李進勇) said the commission is to convene again on July 16 to discuss whether to reschedule the election because of the COVID-19 outbreak or other factors. A recall vote must be held from 20 to 60 days after the proposition clears all legal hurdles. Chen’s office issued a statement saying that he intends to continue his duties and fight the recall.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
New AIT deputy director
Veteran diplomat Jeremy Cornforth has been appointed as the new deputy director of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), replacing Raymond Greene, who is to become the new charge d’affaires at the US embassy in Tokyo. Cornforth, who joined the US Foreign Service in 1998, is to begin his duties in Taiwan in July next year, the AIT said in a statement. He has served overseas as a consular and political officer in Israel, the Dominican Republic, India, Tunisia and Lebanon, and was chief of the consular section at the US consulate in Guangzhou, China, the AIT said. In a video clip posted on the AIT’s Facebook page to bid farewell to Taiwan, Greene said that Taiwanese should be proud of their achievements in advancing democracy and human rights.
SOCIETY
Judo student passes away
A seven-year-old boy who fell into a coma in April after being thrown to the floor several times by his judo coach and classmates passed away on Tuesday, Feng Yuan Hospital said. The boy’s blood pressure and heart rate declined in the past few days, and his parents decided to remove him from life support on Tuesday evening, the hospital in Taichung said. The boy, surnamed Huang (黃), was injured at a judo class and lost consciousness at a local dojo in the city’s Fongyuan District (豐原) on April 21. Prosecutors formally indicted his coach, surnamed Ho (何), on June 4 with using children to commit a crime under Article 112 of the Protection of Children and Youths Welfare and Rights Act (兒童及少年福利與權益保障法) and causing injury to another person under Article 277 of the Criminal Code. Ho was detained and held incommunicado on April 24 and released on bail of NT$100,000 on June 4.
EDUCATION
Academician dies at 86
Academia Sinica academician Chen Sow-hsin (陳守信) has passed away at the age of 86, the nation’s top research institution said on Thursday. Chen died in the US on Saturday last week, it said, adding that he was a recognized authority on neutron, X-ray and laser scattering. A leading expert on the dynamic properties of supercooled and interfacial water, Chen discovered a second low-temperature critical point in water at about 200 Kelvin in 2006. “He has contributed significantly to theoretical and experimental research on the dynamics of water molecules in biological and nano-structures,” the institution said. Chen joined the faculty of the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1968, and became a professor emeritus in 2009, it said.
GREAT POWER COMPETITION: Beijing views its military cooperation with Russia as a means to push back against the joint power of the US and its allies, an expert said A recent Sino-Russian joint air patrol conducted over the waters off Alaska was designed to counter the US military in the Pacific and demonstrated improved interoperability between Beijing’s and Moscow’s forces, a national security expert said. National Defense University associate professor Chen Yu-chen (陳育正) made the comment in an article published on Wednesday on the Web site of the Journal of the Chinese Communist Studies Institute. China and Russia sent four strategic bombers to patrol the waters of the northern Pacific and Bering Strait near Alaska in late June, one month after the two nations sent a combined flotilla of four warships
THE TOUR: Pope Francis has gone on a 12-day visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore. He was also invited to Taiwan The government yesterday welcomed Pope Francis to the Asia-Pacific region and said it would continue extending an invitation for him to visit Taiwan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs made the remarks as Pope Francis began a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific on Monday. He is to travel about 33,000km by air to visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore, and would arrive back in Rome on Friday next week. It would be the longest and most challenging trip of Francis’ 11-year papacy. The 87-year-old has had health issues over the past few years and now uses a wheelchair. The ministry said
TAIWANESE INNOVATION: The ‘Seawool’ fabric generates about NT$200m a year, with the bulk of it sourced by clothing brands operating in Europe and the US Growing up on Taiwan’s west coast where mollusk farming is popular, Eddie Wang saw discarded oyster shells transformed from waste to function — a memory that inspired him to create a unique and environmentally friendly fabric called “Seawool.” Wang remembered that residents of his seaside hometown of Yunlin County used discarded oyster shells that littered the streets during the harvest as insulation for their homes. “They burned the shells and painted the residue on the walls. The houses then became warm in the winter and cool in the summer,” the 42-year-old said at his factory in Tainan. “So I was
‘LEADERS’: The report highlighted C.C. Wei’s management at TSMC, Lisa Su’s decisionmaking at AMD and the ‘rock star’ status of Nvidia’s Huang Time magazine on Thursday announced its list of the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence (AI), which included Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家), Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) and AMD chair and CEO Lisa Su (蘇姿丰). The list is divided into four categories: Leaders, Innovators, Shapers and Thinkers. Wei and Huang were named in the Leaders category. Other notable figures in the Leaders category included Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Meta CEO and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Su was listed in the Innovators category. Time highlighted Wei’s
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