POLITICS
No unification date: official
Beijing has no timetable for unification with Taiwan, Jing Quan (井泉), the No. 3 official at the Chinese embassy in Washington, said on Wednesday. “We don’t want to use force” against Taiwan, but Beijing needs the capability to deter Taipei from declaring independence,” Jing said in a speech at the Institute for China-America Studies. “Some people are talking about five years, 10 years, 2035, 2049 — I don’t think so,” he added. “We want to get united as soon as possible, but we don’t have a timeline.” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken last month said that Beijing was trying to “speed up” its seizure of Taiwan. US Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Mike Gilday earlier last month warned that China could attack before 2024.
ELECTIONS
Chiayi polls on Dec. 18
The Chiayi mayoral race is to be held on Dec. 18, the Central Election Commission said yesterday, after the election was postponed following the death on Wednesday of independent candidate Huang Shao-tsung (黃紹聰). The Chiayi Election Committee said the new mayor is still expected to assume office on Dec. 25. The committee is to announce today a timetable for candidates to reregister and draw new numbers. According to Article 30 of the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), an election must be halted if a registered candidate passes away between the deadline for registration and the day before voting.
MILITARY
Army holds defense drills
The army’s Special Forces yesterday deployed rotary-wing aircraft for the first time during drills designed to simulate the ferrying of troops into defensive positions in Taipei’s Guandu (關渡) area. Flown in two UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters and escorted by an AH-64E Apache Guardian, the Special Forces units traveled along the Tamsui River (淡水河) before landing at the Guandu Area Command compound. Given the river’s proximity to the Presidential Office Building, simulating the destruction of the Guandu Bridge — a key crossing — has been a routine part of army exercises, officials said. Past drills had involved infantry marching into the Guandu Area Command, the army said, adding that yesterday’s exercises aimed to simulate the rapid reinforcement of defensive positions in and around Taipei.
CRIME
Police free 26 captives
New Taipei City police on Wednesday said they had arrested eight people over the illegal imprisonment and torture of 26 people freed during a raid in Tamsui District (淡水). The Tamsui Precinct said in a statement that armed police on Tuesday raided the suspects’ hideout following a tip from a man claiming to be the father of one of the captives. Police found 26 men and women aged 23 to 58 confined in a 16.5m2 apartment room. All of the captives were handcuffed and shackled, and had scratches, bruises and cigarette burns on their bodies, they said. The suspects had lured the captives to the apartment on the pretense of interviewing for jobs with monthly salaries of NT$50,000 to NT$200,000. During the fake job interviews, the suspects demanded the jobseekers hand over their bank passbooks and identification documents, as well as apply for an online bank account for use in money laundering. The captives were only given one meal a day, and were beaten using bats and stun rods if they refused to take orders, police said. The case has been handed over to the Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office.
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
CPBL players, cheerleaders and officials pose at a news conference in Taipei yesterday announcing the upcoming All-Star Game. This year’s CPBL All-Star Weekend is to be held at the Taipei Dome on July 19 and 20.
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a
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