FOREIGN AFFAIRS
US passes Taiwan map bill
The US House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a ban on using public funds to make, buy or display maps that “inaccurately” display Taiwan, without specifying what constitutes an accurate map. The provision was part of a US$1.5 trillion omnibus spending bill, which must be passed by the Senate before reaching US President Joe Biden’s desk. The ban is a modified version of a motion to prohibit maps that identify Taiwan as part of China, introduced by US representatives Tom Tiffany, Steve Chabot, Scott Perry, Kat Cammack and Mike Gallagher last year. “As we all know, Taiwan has never been part of communist China. The Taiwanese people elect their own leaders, raise their own armed forces, conduct their own foreign policy and maintain their own international trade agreements,” Tiffany said at the time.
Photo: Screen grab from the National Football League Communications’ Twitter account
DEFENSE
NSB confirms plane crash
The National Security Bureau (NSB) yesterday confirmed that a Chinese military aircraft crashed in the South China Sea earlier this month. It was the first time a government agency from any country acknowledged the crash, details of which were first reported by a Vietnamese journalist on Sunday. Speaking at a legislative hearing, bureau Director-General Chen Ming-tong (陳明通) said that Beijing promptly launched a search-and-rescue mission to recover the aircraft. A social media post by a reporter identified as Duan Dang said that the government lost contact with a Chinese Y-8 maritime patrol aircraft in the southwestern area of Sanya, China, on Tuesday last week. Chen said that China used the incident to seal off the area around the crash site, and reassert its claims in the South China Sea, while the world was distracted by the war in Ukraine.
DEFENSE
Bolster defense: US official
Washington’s response to a Chinese attack would be different from that seen in Ukraine, a top US Department of Defense official said on Wednesday. US Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Ely Ratner made the remarks in testimony at a congressional hearing. “With the PRC [People’s Republic of China] as the department’s pacing challenge, Taiwan is the pacing scenario, and, we aim to deter and deny PRC aggression through a combination of Taiwan’s own defenses, its partnership with the United States and growing support from like-minded democracies,” Ratner said. “The lessons that I draw on, No. 1, are the importance of Taiwan developing its own [self-defense] capabilities,” he added.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Belize PM pitches businesses
A visiting delegation led by Belizean Prime Minister John Briceno yesterday pitched business opportunities to Taiwanese companies and investors in a forum in Taipei, which follows the Taiwan-Belize Economic Cooperation Agreement that took effect earlier this year. Belizean Trade and Investment Ambassador Jaime Briceno said that the Central American country can be a favorable investment destination for Taiwan given its bilingual population, stable currency, and predictable political and business environments, as well as government-initiated incentives. The agreement reduces taxes on 199 types of imported Belizean products, including frozen lobster, processed citrus products, and seasoning and sauce products. Under the agreement, Belize decreased taxes on 33 Taiwanese industrial products.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
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