MONEY LAUNDERING
Taiwan to lead Asia group
Taiwan has been chosen over China to represent East Asia in the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG), an Executive Yuan official said on condition of anonymity yesterday. APG member states of the designated region are Japan, South Korea, China, Hong Kong, Mongolia, Macau and Taiwan participating under the name of Chinese Taipei, the official said. The Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Justice is to represent the nation in the group’s proceedings, the person said. Taiwan was the region’s representative in 2005 and 2009, showing that the country has made strides in controlling money laundering, the person said.
RAILWAYS
Fenglin-Yuli service resumes
Train services between Fenglin (鳳林) and Yuli (玉里) stations in eastern Hualien County resumed yesterday, after the completion of repairs to railway infrastructure following severe damage caused by a series of earthquakes last month, the state-run operator said. The only section of rail still closed is a stretch of track between Yuli and Fuli (富里) stations to the south, near the Taitung County border, the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) said. The 18.8 kilometer Yuli-Fuli section of the Eastern Trunk Line is expected to resume normal operations by the end of the year, the TRA said. Until then, passengers traveling on that section must use supplemented bus routes, which run every 15 minutes from 6:30am to 10pm, and charge the same fare as local trains, the TRA said. A bus journey between the two stations is about 50 minutes, compared with 26 minutes by train.
ENVIRONMENT
Online packaging restricted
Online retailers in Taiwan are to be banned from using packaging materials containing polyvinylchloride (PVC) beginning July next year, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said on Thursday, following rising environmental concerns over the surge in online shopping packaging waste. Materials containing PVC are to be banned in packaging for e-retail businesses, and all packaging must contain a certain amount of recycled material, a draft regulation posted on the EPA Web site shows. Wrappers in natural colors that contain over 90 percent recycled paper, or plastic packaging made from more than 25 percent reusable plastic, should be prioritized as packaging material, the draft rules say. Online retailers with capital of NT$150 million or more are also to be required to achieve a 25 percent packaging reduction rate by 2024, rising to 35 percent by 2026.
JUSTICE
System warns of jailbreaks
A new function has been added to the internal prison management system, allowing correctional facilities nationwide to issue an immediate warning of a jailbreak, the Ministry of Justice said on Thursday. An alert is to be issued within an hour of a prison’s report about an escape, Minister of Justice Tsai Ching-hsiang (蔡清祥) told lawmakers in a committee hearing. Tsai was reporting to the committee about his ministry’s efforts to address public concerns after two police officers were murdered last month by a minimum-security prison inmate who disappeared while on a two-day leave. Prison officers are now required to inform the Agency of Corrections so that an alert can be broadcast nationwide, Tsai said. Prison staff must also contact a prosecutors’ office within two hours of an inmate’s escape so that an arrest warrant can be issued, Tsai said.
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
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
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard