SEISMICITY
Earthquake shakes Nantou
A magnitude 5.6 earthquake yesterday jolted Nantou County at 6:41pm, the Central Weather Bureau said. The earthquake was centered in the county’s Renai Township (仁愛), 40.9km northeast of Nantou County Hall, the bureau said. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges its actual effect, was highest in Nantou, Changhua, Hualien and Yilan counties, and Taichung, where it measured 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, it said. The earthquake also had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi, Hsinchu, Miaoli, Taitung and Yunlin counties, it added. No immediate damage or injuries were reported.
HEALTH
Virus rules scofflaws nabbed
Nearly 100 migrant workers from Vietnam were on Sunday caught gathering at a restaurant in Taoyuan, in contravention of the government’s COVID-19 restrictions on indoor gatherings, which are capped at 80, police said yesterday. Acting on a tip-off received at about 8:30pm about migrant workers gathering for a party at a restaurant on Taoying Road, police surrounded the venue to prevent anyone from leaving. After having the restaurant’s owner, a Vietnamese woman surnamed Nguyen, 33, open a closed roll-up metal entrance, police found about 40 people inside and about 50 more hiding on the top floor, Dashu Police Station Chief Hsieh Ching-hua (謝青樺) said. The police ultimately found 102 people gathered at the restaurant, including four employees and 98 customers, all of whom were from Vietnam, Hsieh said.
SOCIETY
Man swept away in Miaoli
Rescue teams in Miaoli County were on Sunday searching for a man who was swept away while fishing in the Houlong River (後龍溪), the county’s Fire Bureau said. The bureau received a report of a man swept away by the river at 2:48pm and dispatched rescuers to the scene near Gui-Shan Bridge, it said. Although they did not find the man, they rescued two migrant workers trapped under the bridge, the bureau said. The missing man’s motorcycle was found nearby, and his wife was notified about his disappearance, the bureau said. Firefighters joined rescuers to search along the river and drones were used to help with the search, it said. The rescuers were unable to enter the water because of the strong current, it said. A cable was set up under Xindong Bridge, nearly 2km downstream, so the man could grab it if he passes by, the bureau said.
SOCIETY
Man found off Kinmen
Coast guard officers on Sunday intercepted a boat carrying a Chinese man who said he was seeking freedom in Taiwan, the Coast Guard Administration said. The man was being questioned about the incident, it added. The boat was spotted off Kinmen County’s Lieyu Township (烈嶼) during a regular patrol, a local coast guard unit said. When the rubber dinghy was intercepted, its lone occupant, a man his 50s, said he had traveled from nearby Xiamen, China, in pursuit of freedom and democracy in Taiwan, the administration said. The coast guard detained the man and notified the Kinmen County Department of Health and other agencies about his attempted illegal entry into the country. In keeping with the nation’s COVID-19 regulations, the man was taken to a quarantine facility in Kinmen, where he would be monitored for the required 14-day period, after which he would be handed over to the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office, the coast guard said.
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