FOREIGN AFFAIRS
German minister to visit
German Minister of Education and Research Bettina Stark-Watzinger is to visit Taiwan next week, a spokesperson said yesterday. It would be the first time in 26 years a German minister has visited Taiwan. The two-day trip is to begin on Tuesday, the Financial Times reported. The visit is to follow a January delegation of high-ranking lawmakers from the Free Democratic Party (FDP), the smallest party in German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-way coalition. Stark-Watzinger is also of the FDP. In a departure from the policies of former chancellor Angela Merkel, Germany is developing a new China strategy to reduce dependence on China. At the same time, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co is considering investments in Europe and Germany.
Photo: AP
MILITARY
Arrest warrant issued
The Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday issued an arrest warrant for a soldier who was discovered in China after going missing from the county on Thursday last week. The private first class, surnamed Chen (陳), is suspected of contravening the Criminal Code of the Armed Forces (陸海空軍刑法), the office said, adding that investigations are ongoing to determine whether he could be prosecuted for other crimes. Chen, 26, was reported missing after not attending roll call on Erdan Islet (二膽), a small island in Kinmen’s Lieyu Township (烈嶼) less than 5km from China. The Mainland Affairs Council on Monday said it was informed by Chinese authorities that Chen was in China and unharmed, and was in the process of being returned.
COVID-19
Ministry protects wages
Employers should respect the wishes of employees who test positive for COVID-19 if they wish to work as usual during self-health management, and can negotiate with the employee to work from home, the Ministry of Labor said yesterday. The ministry said that employers cannot demand that employees abstain from work or that they could only return after testing negative. Any such demands should not be grounds to withhold pay, as the employee is obliging the employer’s demands, it added. Workers can present photographic proof of a rapid test result to ask their employer for sick leave, which should be given half-day’s wages, provided the employee has not taken more than 30 days of sick leave within the year. Starting from the day the employee presents proof of a positive test, the following five days starting the day after cannot be cited by the employer as grounds to refuse the employee’s attendance award.
CRIME
Lobster smugglers fined
More than NT$98.61 million (US$3.23 million) in fines were levied on ship owners and crew found smuggling 58,706kg of live lobsters from Australia to China via Lienchiang County in September and November last year, the Customs Administration said in a statement on Thursday. The smuggling of Australian rock lobsters through Taiwan into China has become rampant as a result of China’s ban on Australian lobsters since late 2020 after Canberra called for an international investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. The coast guard seized the undeclared Australian lobsters from 33 shipments and referred the cases to the Keelung Customs Office. The customs office on Friday last week fined an unspecified number of Taiwanese ship owners and crew members involved in smuggling the lobsters, the largest amount ever for the county, the administration said.
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
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