WEATHER
Cool, cloudy New Year’s
The weather is expected to become cooler today as a northeasterly wind system intensifies, with temperatures predicted to dip as low as 14°C to 15°C in the north and northeast, and 16°C to 18°C in other regions, the Central Weather Administration said. On New Year’s Eve, brief showers are expected in the greater Taipei area, while intermittent rain is forecast for some areas in the northeast and coastal areas near Keelung from today through tomorrow. People in areas south of Hsinchu and the outlying Penghu, Kinmen and Lienchiang Counties might have a better chance of seeing the first ray of sunlight on New Year’s Day. Areas north of Taoyuan and in the eastern half of Taiwan are expected to be cloudier, the administration said. Meanwhile, snowfall was spotted on the northern peak of Yushan (玉山) yesterday morning. The snowfall started at 7:55am and lasted until 9:20am, before rain began falling at 9:40am, data from the administration’s Yushan weather station showed. Temperatures on the mountain dipped as low as minus-1.6°C, it added.
Photo courtesy of the Central Weather Administration
SOCIETY
Crane crashes into bus
A construction crane hit a bus on a Taipei street yesterday morning, with no injuries reported, police said. Police said they received a report at 10:58am regarding the incident at the intersection of Zhongshan N Road and Minquan E Road, near the Minquan W Road MRT station. Initial investigations suggested the bus had been waiting at the intersection when the crane hit it and shattered a window. The construction truck operating the crane was finishing work on an office building. The driver, surnamed Chang (張), said that he was about to retract the crane, with police saying he was suspected of having hit the bus following a moment of negligence. The bus driver said there were more than 10 passengers on board at the time, but nobody was injured. All were transferred to other buses. The Taipei Department of Labor said it had sent staff to investigate the incident.
SOCIETY
Taoyuan MRT advances
The Taoyuan Metro Brown Line project, aimed at connecting northern Taoyuan and the greater Taipei area, came one step closer to reality after the Ministry of Transportation and Communications approved its proposed route on Friday, local transportation officials said. The comprehensive planning of the line between the Taiwan Railways Administration’s (TRA) Taoyuan Station and the Taipei Metro’s Huilong Station would be passed to the Executive Yuan for final review, and would be completed within eight years once approved, the Taoyuan Department of Rapid Transit Systems said. The seven-stop line would reduce travel time between the two terminals to 18 minutes from 40 minutes by bus, making commuting between Sinjhuang District (新莊) in New Taipei City and Taoyuan County’s Taoyuan (桃源) and Gueishan (龜山) districts more convenient, it said. At Taoyuan Station, the first stop of the 11.38km line, passengers would be able to transfer to the TRA system and the Taoyuan Metro’s Green Line, currently under construction, officials said. The final stop of the Brown Line would be Huilong Station on the Taipei Metro’s Jhonghe-Xinlu Line, as well as the Wanda-Zhonghe-Shulin Line, which is under construction. The NT$20 billion (US$650.72 million) Brown Line project, the planning of which was initiated in 2018, is part of the city’s six-line rail network vision.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to 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), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai