POLITICS
Taipei mayor on ‘Time’
Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) has been named on Time magazine’s 2023 TIME100 Next list, among the “emerging leaders from around the world who are shaping the future and defining the next generation of leadership.” “Elected in 2022 as Taipei’s youngest-ever mayor, Chiang has pledged to bring new blood to Taiwan’s Kuomintang [Chinese Nationalist Party, KMT]” the Time write-up says. “Reputedly Asia’s oldest and richest political party, it’s recently struggled to attract youth support because of its Beijing-friendly reputation.” The magazine said Chiang has taken a moderate view while emphasizing his commitment to Taiwan’s democracy. “Although Chiang maintains he’s focused on ambitious urban-development plans, he’s increasingly tipped as a future presidential candidate,” Time said.
LABOR
Minimum wage increased
The Cabinet yesterday approved a proposal put forward by the Ministry of Labor to raise the monthly minimum salary by 4.05 percent to NT$27,470, and the minimum hourly wage by NT$7 to NT$183. The revisions to the current NT$26,400 monthly and NT$176 hourly minimum wage are to take effect on Jan. 1, the Cabinet said. The increases, which ministry statistics show would affect about 1.79 million employees and 600,000 hourly workers, would not apply to live-in migrant caregivers and domestic helpers, who are not covered by the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法).
CRIME
Former teacher convicted
A former elementary-school teacher has been sentenced to 13 years in prison for sexually assaulting two female students, the Tainan District Court said on Wednesday. The court in a statement said that the former teacher, a man in his 70s surnamed Shang (尚), committed the offenses from 2002 to 2004 while working at two elementary schools in Tainan. An investigation was only launched into Shang, who retired in 2004, in 2020, after a former student reported being sexually assaulted by Shang to the Humanistic Education Foundation, the court said. A subsequent probe by the Tainan City Government determined that Shang had sexually abused two other students when they were in the fifth and sixth grade at the time, the court said. The ruling can be appealed.
ENVIRONMENT
Sperm whales seen
More than 20 sperm whales were seen off the coast of Hualien County at 11am on Wednesday, the biggest pod of the whale species spotted this year, experts said. Liao Hung-chi (廖鴻基), head of a Hualien-based marine conservation organization, said there have been sightings of sperm whales off the Hualien coast since May, but the pod on Wednesday was the largest seen in the area this year. Liao said his organization is investigating why so many whales have recently been seen off the Hualien coast after a rare run of sightings for five months. Meanwhile, Lu Shih-ming (呂世明), manager of whale watching company Turumoan, said that a whale watching boat set sail at 10:30am on Wednesday and discovered a pod of sperm whales 6 to 8 nautical miles (11.1km to 14.8km) from the Port of Hualien. In the past, the most sperm whales offshore tour groups from Hualien had seen was five, therefore seeing 20 was a huge surprise for everyone, Lu said. The sperm whales could have gathered off the coast of Hualien due to the current after the recent typhoon, Lu said.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to