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.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
‘SAME OLD TRICK’: Even if Beijing resumes individual travel to Taiwan, it would only benefit Chinese tourism companies, the Economic Democracy Union convener said China’s 10 new “incentives” are “sugar-coated poison,” an official said yesterday, adding that Taiwanese businesses see them clearly for what they are, but that Beijing would inevitably find some local collaborators to try to drums up support. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, made the remark ahead of a news conference the General Chamber of Commerce is to hold today. The event, titled “Industry Perspectives on China’s Recent Pro-Taiwan Policies,” is expected to include representatives from industry associations — such as those in travel, hotels, food and agriculture — to request the government cooperate with China’s new measures, people familiar with
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