TRAVEL
CAL offers more flights
China Airlines (CAL) yesterday said it would start offering more international flights next month in anticipation of growing post-COVID-19 demand. As many countries are easing their border regulations, CAL said it would gradually increase its passenger flights in the third quarter, with the aim of reaching 150 flights per week, which would be a 40 percent jump. Starting next month, CAL said it would operate a daily flight on its mainstay route between Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) and Haneda in Tokyo. It would also schedule more flights to other Japanese destinations, including Narita airport outside Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and Fukuoka, it added. In a news release, CAL said it would also fly daily to Seoul from August, and expand its services to Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, Myanmar, Hong Kong, China, the US, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, New Zealand and Australia.
FOOD SAFETY
Dodgy broccoli halted
Several shipments of broccoli from Thailand and Vietnam recently failed customs inspections because they were found to contain excessive levels of either heavy metals or pesticide residues, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. A total of 13 shipments had been rejected recently at customs, an FDA report on substandard food imports said. They included one batch of broccoli from Thailand and two from Vietnam, which exceeded the safety levels for residues of heavy metals, the FDA said. Another shipment of broccoli from Vietnam was found to contain excessive pesticide residues, it added. Consequently, it said, customs will step up checks of food products brought in by the four importers of the broccoli, from the standard 2 to 10 percent of shipments to about 20 to 50 percent. Meanwhile, a batch of Hericium erinaceus**, known locally as monkey head mushrooms, imported from China, was also found to be contaminated with high levels of pesticide residues, the FDA said, adding that it was the 13th time in six months that had occurred with imports of the product from China.
DIPLOMACY
Thai, Canada envoys named
Taiwan External Trade Development Council vice chairman Chuang Suo-hang (莊碩漢) was on Monday named the new representative to Thailand, a post that became vacant last year when his predecessor fell ill and resigned. Chuang, who is also chairman of the Taipei World Trade Center, is to head the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Bangkok, an announcement by the Presidential Office said. Chuang, 66, had served as Cabinet spokesman, deputy minister of the Overseas Compatriot Affairs Council and one term as legislator from 2005 to 2008. The Presidential Office has also named Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Harry Tseng (曾厚仁) as the new representative to Canada. Tseng’s previous positions include representative to the EU and Belgium (2017-2020), deputy head of the National Security Council (2016-2017) and deputy secretary-general at the Presidential Office (2016).
MEDIA
Layoffs at Apple Online
Apple Online, the sister Web site of Hong Kong’s now-
defunct Apple Daily newspaper, plans to lay off 280 employees in August, a Taipei Department of Labor official said yesterday. Chen Kun-hung (陳昆鴻), head of the department’s Employment Security Division, said that based on a layoff plan Apple Online submitted to the agency on Friday, it plans to terminate 280 employees on Aug. 9. The 60-day advance notification provided is in line with the Worker Protection of Mass Redundancy Act (大量解僱勞工保護法), Chen said, adding that some Apple Online employees have reported hearing the news, but have not yet received official notification.
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
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
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