DEFENSE
Chinese naval ship spotted
A Chinese naval reconnaissance vessel was spotted off Hualien County early yesterday morning, ahead of the start of the annual live-fire Han Kuang military exercises on Monday, an anonymous military source said. The Chinese vessel was spotted 44 nautical miles (81.5km) off Fengbin Township (豐濱) at about 4am, sailing in a southeasterly direction until it went out of monitoring range, the source said. Chinese reconnaissance and intelligence vessels had been spotted in the area before live-fire drills in previous years, they added. Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) said the ministry was looking into the matter. The drills starting on Monday are to include large-scale joint naval and air drills off Yilan County’s Suao Township (蘇澳).
EDUCATION
Amendment targets abuse
The Cabinet on Thursday approved a draft amendment aiming to weed out public school employees convicted of sexual assault, corruption or national security-related offenses. The amendment to the Act Governing the Appointment of Educators (教育人員任用條例) stipulates that educators who have hidden previous sexual assault convictions and commit further offenses on campus could be dismissed without authorization by the authorities. Previous convictions would under certain circumstances permanently disqualify educators from positions at public schools. The bill would apply to principals, teachers, staffers and sports coaches at public schools; researchers at government-affiliated institutions; and personnel at social education institutions. Personnel would be suspended from their duties for one to four years if they are found guilty of sexual harassment, bullying or causing mental or physical suffering to students through the use of corporal punishment.
CULTURE
Bookstore to get overhaul
Renovation work on Taiwan’s oldest Chinese-language bookstore began on Thursday, funded by the Keelung Cultural Affairs Bureau. Renovation of the 75-year-old bookstore is expected to take one year, the bureau said. To help save the local heritage site, bureau Director-General Chen Ching-ping (陳靜萍) said the bureau secured funding of NT$3.58 million (US$119,668) from the Ministry of Culture. The Tzu Li Bookstore (自立書店) was founded by Chen Shang-hui (陳上惠) in April 1947, the bureau said. Chen Shang-hui, who passed away in January last year at the age of 103, in 1945 became aware that local stores only sold books in Japanese after Tokyo’s colonial rule ended in October that year, the bureau said. He then started importing books from China to sell them in his newly opened store, it added.
SOCIETY
Ports upgraded for migrants
Most fishing ports have been equipped with washrooms and prayer rooms for foreign fishing crew members so that 59 percent of Taiwan’s 6,895 foreign crew members now have access to such facilities, the Fisheries Agency said on Wednesday. The agency started a program to set up the facilities in 2020. As of June 30, 29 washrooms with hot water systems had been set up at fishing ports, agency Director-General Chang Chih-sheng (張致盛) said, adding that three more would be completed in the second half of this year, as the agency seeks to increase the coverage rate to 90 percent. As most crew members are Muslims, 14 prayer rooms had also been set up, Chang said. The agency also expanded its online portal for foreign fishers, offering services in Chinese, English, Indonesian, Filipino and Vietnamese.
A Keelung high school on Saturday night apologized for using a picture containing a Chinese flag on the cover of the senior yearbook, adding that it has recalled the books and pledged to provide students new ones before graduation on Thursday. Of 309 Affiliated Keelung Maritime Senior High School of National Taiwan Ocean University graduates, 248 had purchased the yearbook. Some students said that the printer committed an outrageous error in including the picture, while others said that nobody would notice such a small flag on the cover. Other students said that they cared more about the photographs of classmates and what was
GOING INTERNATIONAL: Rakuten Girls squad leader Ula Shen said she was surprised that baseball fans outside of Taiwan not only knew of them, but also knew their names Major League Baseball’s (MLB) Oakland Athletics on Saturday hosted its first Taiwanese Heritage Day event at the Oakland Coliseum with a performance by Taiwanese cheerleading squad the Rakuten Girls and a video message from Vice President William Lai (賴清德). The Rakuten Girls, who are the cheerleaders for the CPBL’s Rakuten Monkeys, performed in front of a crowd of more than 2,000 people, followed by a prerecorded address by Lai about Taiwan’s baseball culture and democratic spirit. Taiwanese pitcher Sha Tzu-chen (沙子宸), who was signed by the Athletics earlier this year, was also present. Mizuki Lin (林襄), considered a “baseball cheerleading goddess” by Taiwanese
WAY OF THE RUKAI: ‘Values deemed worthy often exist amid discomfort, so when people go against the flow, nature becomes entwined with our lives,’ a student said “Run, don’t walk” after your dreams, Nvidia cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) told National Taiwan University (NTU) graduates yesterday, as several major universities held in-person graduation ceremonies for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. “What will you create? Whatever it is, run after it. Run, don’t walk. Remember, either you’re running for food, or you are running from becoming food. Oftentimes, you can’t tell which. Either way, run,” he said. Huang was one of several tech executives addressing graduating students at Taiwanese universities. National Chengchi University held two ceremonies, with alumnus Patrick Pan (潘先國), who is head of Taiwan
A 14-legged giant isopod is the highlight of a new dish at a ramen restaurant in Taipei and it has people lining up — both for pictures and for a bite from this bowl of noodles. Since “The Ramen Boy” launched the limited-edition noodle bowl on Monday last week, declaring in a social media post that it had “finally got this dream ingredient,” more than 100 people have joined a waiting list to dine at the restaurant. “It is so attractive because of its appearance — it looks very cute,” said the 37-year-old owner of the restaurant, who wanted to be
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