POLITICS
Chang tapped for APEC
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has appointed Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) as her envoy to next month’s APEC summit, the Presidential Office said yesterday. Chang is to attend the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting, which is scheduled to be held from Nov. 15 to 17 in San Francisco, Presidential Office spokeswoman Lin Yu-chan (林聿禪) said in a press release. Under the Tsai administration, Chang has excelled in the role of the president’s envoy, successfully carrying out the duties assigned to him by Tsai at five previous APEC meetings, from 2018 to last year, Lin said. Those duties included engaging with other APEC leaders, enhancing Taiwan’s global visibility, and conveying the country’s willingness and ability to contribute to the international community, Lin said. Chang, 92, is the founder of TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, and he has served as the president’s envoy to APEC seven times. He first attended the annual APEC summit on behalf of Taiwan’s president in 2006, during the administration of then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁). While the heads of government of all APEC members usually attend the annual Economic Leaders’ Meeting, Taiwan’s leaders have not been permitted to do so, due to China’s objection.
SOCIETY
Mahjong referendum denied
The Central Election Commission (CEC) on Friday rejected a proposed referendum on decriminalizing gambling on mahjong in public for elderly people with stakes of less than NT$1,000. The proposal, initiated by Kuo Hsi (郭璽), founder and chair of the Taiwan Mahjong Greatest Party, sought to allow people aged 65 or older to legally bet amounts lower than NT$1,000 on mahjong games in public. A hearing was held on July 17, after which Kuo was asked to submit a revised proposal. The CEC held a second meeting on Friday to examine the revised proposal, but it still turned it down, because it “did not meet the legal requirements,” the commission said in a press release, without providing any other details. In its current form, Article 266 of the Criminal Code makes gambling in public or via electronic or virtual means punishable by a fine of up to NT$50,000. While the law does contain an exception for gambling that is done “for temporary amusement,” it does not clearly define the term or set a ceiling on how much can be wagered.
CRIME
Three die in Taoyuan
Taoyuan prosecutors are investigating an alleged murder-suicide case in Taoyuan’s Yangmei District (楊梅), in which a suspect, surnamed Cheng (鄭), allegedly stabbed to death a couple, then jumped off a building to his death. Police first received a report of a man falling off a building on Tuesday night, then found a couple’s bodies at their home, apparently killed by knife wounds. Prosecutors identified the couple as a man surnamed Hung (洪), 54, and his wife, surnamed Hoang, 42, originally from Vietnam, who had reportedly been involved in romantic relations with Cheng, 48. Neighbors said the couple were married for more than 10 years, but were once divorced, then remarried. Neighbors said Hoang had a relationship with Cheng when the couple were divorced. Later, Cheng harassed Hoang over her returning to Hung. Due to constant harassment by Cheng, the couple in July applied for a “restraining order” mandating Cheng to stay away, according to Taoyuan prosecutors.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
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