CRIME
Oil trader jailed
The Kaohsiung branch of the Taiwan High Court yesterday sentenced a businessman who sold oil to North Korea to one year in prison for contravening the Counter-Terrorism Financing Act (資恐防制法). Huang Wang-ken (黃旺根) sold 2,829 tonnes of oil to North Korea by arranging illicit ship-to-ship fuel transfers in international waters, prosecutors said. A tanker owned by Huang — the Panamanian-flagged Shang Yuan Bao — was sanctioned by the UN Security Council in October 2018 over the transfers, with the US Department of the Treasury imposing secondary sanctions on three of Huang’s shipping companies in August 2019. The court said that Huang had “seriously tarnished Taiwan’s image, and put it at risk of being sanctioned or reproached by the UN and the international community.” The court said it reduced a 14-month sentence Huang received in April in a trial at a lower court as the businessman confessed to wrongdoing in his most recent trial. The verdict can be appealed.
INFRASTRUCTURE
Kinmen Bridge to open
Kinmen Bridge, which connects the county’s main island and Little Kinmen, or Lieyu (烈嶼), would open to traffic on Sunday, the Freeway Bureau said. The final preopening inspection of the bridge was carried out on Monday and suggested improvements — which covered areas such as drainage, traffic engineering, traffic control systems and lighting — would be completed today, the bureau said. The 4.8km bridge stretches east-west connecting Jinning Township’s (金寧) Cihhu (慈湖) on the larger island to Houtou (后頭) in Lieyu Township. The project, which was approved by the Executive Yuan in 2010 and launched in 2012, had been plagued by problems such as inexperienced contractors and construction crews, which resulted in contracts being terminated twice, the bureau said. In 2016, a new contract was awarded, and construction resumed in December that year, it said. Meanwhile, the Kinmen County Government on Wednesday said that next year’s Kinmen Marathon would be revised to include the new bridge. Registration is to open on Nov. 11 for the marathon, which is scheduled for Feb. 11 and 12. The organizers have not released updated details of the race routes.
SOCIETY
Poster painter dies
Chen Tzu-fu (陳子福), a prolific painter of movie posters before printed posters became the norm, has passed away, the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute said on Tuesday. He was 96. Chen was hailed as a national treasure for painting nearly 5,000 movie posters. Before mass printing of commercial movie posters became the norm, Chen would paint posters of domestic and international films freehand, often based on only a cursory understanding of the plot. Chen captured the essence of a film through his vibrant use of colors and dramatic use of framing, the institute said. At the peak of his career, he made about 40 posters a month to be hung at movie theaters, it said. Chen retired in 1994 after painting his final movie poster for the Meryl Streep and Glenn Close film The House of the Spirits. Following his retirement, he received a Special Award at the 43rd Golden Horse Awards in 2006. In 2018 and 2019, Chen donated 1,172 of his works to the institute, which are archived as important artifacts that document the history of Taiwanese cinema.
The Chinese military has built landing bridge ships designed to expand its amphibious options for a potential assault on Taiwan, but their combat effectiveness is limited due to their high vulnerability, a defense expert said in an analysis published on Monday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said that the deployment of such vessels as part of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy’s East Sea Fleet signals a strong focus on Taiwan. However, the ships are highly vulnerable to precision strikes, which means they could be destroyed before they achieve their intended
About 4.2 million tourist arrivals were recorded in the first half of this year, a 10 percent increase from the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. The growth continues to be consistent, with the fourth quarter of this year expected to be the peak in Taiwan, the agency said, adding that it plans to promote Taiwan overseas via partnerships and major events. From January to June, 9.14 million international departures were recorded from Taiwan, an 11 percent increase from the same period last year, with 3.3 million headed for Japan, 1.52 million for China and 832,962 to South Korea,
SOVEREIGNTY: The rigs show that Beijing ‘rejects Taiwan’s jurisdiction’ by building in areas where Taipei demands permission to build or alter installations Chinese oil rigs have been sighted just 26 nautical miles (42km), from Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙島), posing a threat to Taiwan’s sovereignty if left unchallenged, a brief published by the Jamestown Foundation on Tuesday said. Pratas Island, 444km from Kaohsiung, is northeast of the South China Sea and houses a Taiwanese garrison. The brief, titled “Rigging the Game: PRC Oil Structures Encroach on Taiwan’s Pratas Island” — referring to the People’s Republic of China — analyzed photographs and said that Beijing’s tools to pressure Taiwan now include oil rigs. “Oil rigs now constitute part of Beijing’s
The Taiwan Experience Education Program (TEEP) has funded short-term internships in Taiwan for more than 4,500 young people from more than 40 countries since 2015, with the goal of attracting and retaining international talent, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. Fifty-five colleges launched 514 projects this year, including in fields such as semiconductors, artificial intelligence, medicine and biotechnology, green energy, and sustainability, it said. The program provides research and practical internships in Taiwan for two to six months, and offers cultural exchange and networking opportunities, the ministry said. For example, National Formosa University’s Embedded System and Autopilot Laboratory developed two solar-powered drones in
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