FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Tainan, US city set up ties
Tainan yesterday established a sister city relationship with the US city of New Orleans to enhance cooperation in the areas of education, culture and tourism, city officials said. Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) and New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell signed an agreement at a virtual ceremony. Huang praised New Orleans’ rich cultural history, and said he has invited Cantrell to visit Tainan in 2024, when the city is to mark its 400th anniversary. Under the pact, Tainan’s National Cheng Kung University and Xavier University of Louisiana are to also be paired as “sister colleges,” Huang said. A Tainan City Government news release quoted Cantrell as saying New Orleans held events in 2019 to mark the 40th anniversary of the US’ Taiwan Relations Act, and said the cities’ agreement is indicative of deepening US-Taiwan ties.
SOCIETY
Military truck hits mom, kid
A military truck hit a scooter on a main road in New Taipei City yesterday morning, killing the scooter’s driver and her six-year-old daughter, police said. The two vehicles were both driving in the same direction on Jieshou Road in Sansia District (三峽), but the truck driver, surnamed Chen (陳), 27, took a right turn without noticing the scooter to its right, knocked the scooter to the ground, and then ran it over with its back tire, Sansia Precinct police said. The 43-year-old mother and her daughter suffered a cardiac arrest and were pronounced dead in hospital, police said. The Sixth Army Command issued a statement expressing regret for the incident and condolences to the family of the victims. It said top officials would visit the family of the victims and that it would cooperate with a police investigation.
CRIME
Denise Ho wins damage suit
The Taipei District Court on Monday ordered a man who threw paint on Hong Kong singer and democracy campaigner Denise Ho (何韻詩) in Taipei three years ago to pay her NT$400,000 in compensation. Ho was doused in red paint by a masked man during an event in September 2019 in support of Hong Kong’s democracy movement. Police identified the man as Hu Chih-wei (胡志偉), a member of the China Unification Promotion Party. Prosecutors in June 2020 brought criminal charges against the man and 10 other people accused of involvement in the attack. The district court in January only found Hu guilty and sentenced him to three months in prison, which could be commuted to a NT$90,000 fine. The High Court in July upheld the verdict in a final ruling. However, Ho filed a civil lawsuit and the district court on Monday awarded her damages. The ruling can be appealed.
ENTERTAINMENT
Vive Le Cirque coming
Viva Le Cirque is to stage five circus shows in Taipei from Feb. 3 to 5, promoter KHAM Ticket said in a statement on Monday. The shows are family events featuring diverse elements, such as drama, juggling and acrobatics, as well as clowns to bring audiences some laughs, it said. Aside from traditional circus tricks, Viva Le Cirque challenges how people imagine the circus experience by adding laser programming to its show, KHAM said. Star performers include world juggling champion Gabriel Estrada of Costa Rica and the Malevo Argentinian Gaucho Act that performed on America’s Got Talent, as well as performing artists from Cirque du Soleil and other renowned troupes, it said. Tickets went on sale yesterday on the KHAM Ticket platform and at Hi-Life and OK Mart convenience stores.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
US President Donald Trump said "it’s up to" Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be "very unhappy" with a change in the "status quo," the New York Times said in an interview published yesterday. Xi "considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing," Trump told the newspaper on Wednesday. "But I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that," he added. "I hope he doesn’t do that." Trump made the comments in
Tourism in Kenting fell to a historic low for the second consecutive year last year, impacting hotels and other local businesses that rely on a steady stream of domestic tourists, the latest data showed. A total of 2.139 million tourists visited Kenting last year, down slightly from 2.14 million in 2024, the data showed. The number of tourists who visited the national park on the Hengchun Peninsula peaked in 2015 at 8.37 million people. That number has been below 2.2 million for two years, although there was a spike in October last year due to multiple long weekends. The occupancy rate for hotels
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