DIPLOMACY
You leads Japan delegation
Legislative Speaker You Si-kun (游錫堃) yesterday led a delegation to Japan, seeking to boost trade and cultural and parliamentary ties during a five-day trip. At the invitation of the Asia Taiwanese Chambers of Commerce, the delegation is to attend its 30th anniversary celebrations in Tokyo and meet with Taiwanese businesspeople based in Japan. Sources said the delegation is seeking support from the group for Taiwan’s bid to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. If Taiwan is admitted to the trade bloc, it would facilitate trade between Taiwan and regional partners, the government has said. In addition, the visit aims to promote meaningful exchanges between Taiwanese and Japanese lawmakers and bolster bilateral cooperation in areas such as trade, Indo-Pacific security, innovative technology, culture and tourism. The delegation is also planning to visit Hagi, a city in southern Honshu with historical significance due to events during the Meiji Restoration period.
DIPLOMACY
St Lucia PM arrives today
Saint Lucian Prime Minister Philip Pierre is to arrive in Taiwan today for a five-day visit during which he is planning to meet with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. Pierre is to head a delegation including Saint Lucian Minister for Education, Sustainable Development, Innovation, Science, Technology and Vocational Training Shawn Edward, National Insurance Corp chairman Evaristus Marie and Saint Lucia Development Bank chairman Daryl Raymond, the foreign ministry said in a news release. Pierre — who is to visit Taiwan for the first time since he took office in July last year — and his delegation are to be welcomed with a military salute, the ministry said. Taiwan and Saint Lucia first established diplomatic relations in 1984, but the ties were broken in 1997 when the Caribbean country switched recognition from Taipei to Beijing. In April 2007, Taiwan and Saint Lucia re-established diplomatic relations, and China consequently severed its ties with the latter.
HEALTH
Daily cases down 18%
Taiwan yesterday reported 13,311 new COVID-19 cases, including 35 imported cases, and 25 deaths from the disease, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said. The deceased ranged in age from their 50s to their 90s, and they all had underlying health issues, while 10 were unvaccinated against COVID-19, the CECC said. Yesterday’s case count was 18 percent lower than a week earlier, it added. New Taipei City had the most new cases, with 2,064, followed by Taichung with 1,729 and Kaohsiung with 1,708.
SOCIETY
Filipino drowns off Miaoli
A migrant worker drowned in the ocean near the Jhunan Coastal Forest Recreation Area (竹南濱海森林遊憩區) in Miaoli County yesterday morning, the Miaoli Fire Department said. The department received a report at 7:47am that a man disappeared while swimming in the sea off the recreation area. Rescuers dispatched by the department conducted a search-and-rescue mission and found the man in the water without vital signs. He was rushed to a hospital and pronounced dead after efforts to revive him failed, the department said. The cause of the incident is being investigated, police said. The man has been identified as a 36-year-old worker from the Philippines, Chinese-language media reported.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
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