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.
UNDER WATCH: Taiwan will have to establish a standardized nucleic acid testing method to identify the virus and monitor its spread, the CDC said The Langya henipavirus, which can be transmitted from animals to humans, has been discovered in China, with 35 human infections reported so far, Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said, adding that the nation would establish a nucleic acid testing method to identify the virus. A study titled “A Zoonotic Henipavirus in Febrile Patients in China” that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Thursday said that a new henipavirus associated with a fever-causing human illness was identified in China. The study said an investigation identified 35 patients with acute infection of the Langya henipavirus in China’s Shandong
MISSILE PATHS: Certain information on the Chinese missile fire was not disclosed to maintain secrecy over military intelligence-gathering capabilities, the MND said Military experts yesterday speculated on the implication of the government’s tight-lipped response and the lack of air-raid sirens during the first day of China’s military drills the previous day. On Thursday, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) launched 11 Dongfeng-series ballistic missiles into waters north, east and south of Taiwan, a day after US House of Representative Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s departure from the country, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. The Japanese Ministry of Defense said that China fired nine missiles toward Taiwan, including four that flew over Taiwan proper. However, China’s exhibition of force failed to terrorize the local populace, because
If any war were to break out between the US and China, one trigger might be the increasingly frequent fighter jet encounters near Taiwan. Almost every day, Taiwanese fighter pilots hop in their US-made F-16s to intercept Chinese warplanes screaming past their territory. The encounters probe the nation’s defenses and force the pilots on both sides to avoid mistakes that could lead to a crisis that spins out of control. “I didn’t know whether they would fire at me,” said retired colonel Mountain Wang, recounting a tense five-minute confrontation he had with Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) jets more than a decade
INCREASINGLY EMBOLDENED: China can no longer be dismissed as inexperienced, demonstrating an ability to coordinate land and sea missile systems, an expert said Beijing’s largest-ever exercises around Taiwan have offered essential clues into its plans for a grueling blockade in the event of an attack on Taiwan, and revealed an increasingly emboldened Chinese military, experts said. The visit to Taiwan by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi — second in line to the presidency — sparked outrage from Beijing, which launched vast military maneuvers around the nation, even at the risk of partially exposing its plans to the US and its Asian allies. Mobilizing fighter planes, helicopters and warships, the drills aim to simulate a blockade of Taiwan and include practicing an “attack on
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