SOCIETY
Blackout prompts change
Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) yesterday pledged to review and adjust its electricity supply for Taiwan’s outlying islands during the peak summer season after Siaoliouciou Island (小琉球) lost power for an hour on Saturday. The utility said the power outage, which hit the island just off the northwest coast of Pingtung County at about 7:30pm, was caused by hot weather and large numbers of tourists turning on electrical appliances. The island’s power demand hit a record high of 12,475 kilowatts (kW), and the system tripped as it was overloaded, it said. After confirming that there were no other malfunctions, Taipower was able to restore electricity to the island after about an hour, it said. Over the past three years, Siaoliouciou’s highest electricity loads have been recorded between 7pm and 8pm, Taipower said. It hit a peak of 11,660kW on June 8 during the Dragon Boat Festival long weekend, and on June 22 last year peaked at 11,700kW. The Pingtung County Government’s Transportation and Tourism Development Department said 10,418 people arrived on Siaoliouciou on Saturday, a typical number for a weekend during peak travel season. The island is undergoing a systematic voltage change that is expected to increase electricity supply, Taipower said.
WEATHER
Taitung’s Jinfeng hits 37.5°C
Taitung County’s Jinfeng Township (金峰) recorded a temperature of 37.5°C at 1:50pm yesterday, the highest in Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An orange heat alert has been issued for Taitung, signaling a high probability of at least three consecutive days of temperatures reaching 36°C or higher. Hualien County is under a yellow alert, indicating a chance of temperatures exceeding 36°C. The top 10 hottest locations in the nation yesterday also included areas in Yilan, Miaoli and Hsinchu counties, as well as Taipei, the data showed. CWA forecaster Yeh Chih-chun (葉致均) said the weather this week would predominantly consist of high temperatures with localized, brief thunderstorms in the afternoon. Over the next two days, areas in the southeast might record temperatures above 36°C, Yeh said. Areas south of Greater Taipei and mountainous regions could have more intense afternoon thunderstorms, but rainfall is expected to decrease after nightfall, he said.
DIPLOMACY
Nats host pilot Taiwan Day
Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Saturday threw the ceremonial first pitch at Nationals Park in Washington during a pilot Taiwan Day event before the Washington Nationals’ Major League Baseball game against the Miami Marlins. The event drew 500 to 600 Taiwanese, and the 500 limited-edition jerseys with the name “Taiwan DC” and the number “08” — which sounds like “your father” in Taiwanese — were sold out. Lee Hou (侯立宸), who initiated the event, said it was a “proof of concept” game, meaning that if the event was viable based on ticket sales, Taiwan Day would become a standard event from next year. Hou said that to make Taiwan Day an official event, 250 tickets had to be sold through the Taiwan Day landing page, and more than 500 were sold, meaning there is a good chance it would be approved. Hou, 23, a Taiwanese-American baseball enthusiast who used to work for the Washington Nationals, said that after seeing the success of Taiwan Day events in Los Angeles, Seattle and other places, he “made a wish” to add more “Taiwan flavor” to Washington, where he grew up.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
‘MALIGN PURPOSE’: Governments around the world conduct espionage operations, but China’s is different, as its ultimate goal is annexation, a think tank head said Taiwan is facing a growing existential threat from its own people spying for China, experts said, as the government seeks to toughen measures to stop Beijing’s infiltration efforts and deter Taiwanese turncoats. While Beijing and Taipei have been spying on each other for years, experts said that espionage posed a bigger threat to Taiwan due to the risk of a Chinese attack. Taiwan’s intelligence agency said China used “diverse channels and tactics” to infiltrate the nation’s military, government agencies and pro-China organizations. The main targets were retired and active members of the military, persuaded by money, blackmail or pro-China ideology to steal
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