CULTURE
Paris Taiwan center opens
France’s second Taiwan Center for Mandarin Learning opened in Paris on Saturday, and is to promote Taiwanese culture and Taiwanese-style Mandarin learning in the country. The center was inaugurated at L’Encrier Chinois, a Chinese-language school that opened in 2005. Representative to France Francois Wu (吳志中) and Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) Deputy Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) attended the opening ceremony. Hsu said the center, founded by Taipei, serves as a platform for French to learn about Taiwanese culture and democracy. OCAC began opening Mandarin language centers in September last year. Today, 45 centers have been established around the world, including 35 in the US, two each in France, Germany and the UK, and one each in Austria, Hungary, Ireland and Sweden, it said. France’s first center opened at the Association Linguistique et Culturelle Chinoise in September last year.
CRIME
Police nab fugitive teacher
A former elementary-school teacher from Tainan, who was last year convicted of sexually assaulting one of his students, was arrested in Taichung on Saturday afternoon, after being on the most wanted list for more than two months, the Tainan City Police Department said. Chang Po-sheng (張博勝), fired in 2019 after being accused of sexual assault by the student’s mother, had been wanted since Jan. 26, after he failed to hand himself over to the authorities to start serving his prison sentence, police said. Chang was sentenced to four years and 10 months in prison. The ruling was final after his appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court on Nov. 4 last year. Tainan police began to search for Chang after the prosecutors’ office issued a warrant for his arrest on Jan. 26.
SOCIETY
Boat sinks, killing two
The bodies of two men were recovered on Saturday after a cargo boat sank off Keelung, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said. The Tung Yang No. 6 sank about 0.2 nautical miles (370m) south of Keelung Islet, with its two Taiwanese crew members, surnamed Wu (吳) and Lin (林), trapped on board, the CGA said. Wu and Lin had no signs of life when their bodies were recovered by the crew of a leisure fishing boat and Keelung Islet security staff, the CGA said, adding that they were pronounced dead shortly after being rushed to hospital. The CGA said it believes the boat sank because of flaws in its drainage system, which caused the vessel to take on water.
SOCIETY
New hospital for Hsinchu
Government officials on Saturday unveiled a plaque for a children’s hospital in Hsinchu City. It is the first local government-initiated hospital to be built based on the build-operate-transfer model in Taiwan, Hsinchu Mayor Lin Chih-chien (林智堅) said. It involved the coordination of the local government, which provided the land, funds invested by Mackay Memorial Hospital and a construction firm, Lin added. The Hsinchu Municipal Mackay Children’s Hospital is to have 32 pediatric sub-specialty divisions, including acute care, rare diseases, obstetrics and gynecology, when it officially opens on Sept. 1. The hospital would enable children in Taoyuan, Hsinchu and Miaoli, where there is no medical center, to receive the best possible care, as it is classified as a medical center — the highest level on Taiwan’s four-tier classification of medical facilities based on medical equipment.
LOUD AND PROUD Taiwan might have taken a drubbing against Australia and Japan, but you might not know it from the enthusiasm and numbers of the fans Taiwan might not be expected to win the World Baseball Classic (WBC) but their fans are making their presence felt in Tokyo, with tens of thousands decked out in the team’s blue, blowing horns and singing songs. Taiwanese fans have packed out the Tokyo Dome for all three of their games so far and even threatened to drown out home team supporters when their team played Japan on Friday. They blew trumpets, chanted for their favorite players and had their own cheerleading squad who dance on a stage during the game. The team struggled to match that exuberance on the field, with
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
A Taiwanese man apologized on Friday after saying in a social media post that he worked with Australia to provide scouting reports on Taiwan’s team, enabling Australia’s victory in this year’s World Baseball Classic (WBC), saying it was a joke and that he did not hold any position with foreign teams or Taiwan’s sports training center. Chen Po-hao (陳柏豪) drew the rage of many Taiwan baseball fans when he posted online on Thursday night, claiming credit for Australia’s 3-0 win over Taiwan in the opening game for Pool C, saying he worked as a physical therapist with the national team and
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