FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Passport issue linked to vote
Kiribati’s reported decision to no longer accept Taiwan’s passport might be related to its upcoming general elections, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. A Taiwanese surnamed Huang (黃), who tried to visit Kiribati in June, wrote on Facebook that an immigration official told him the Pacific island country no longer accepted Taiwan’s passport and denied his visa application. Due to the lack of official relations with Kiribati, the ministry looked into the situation through a third party, East Asia and Pacific Affairs Deputy Director-General Eric Chen (陳俊吉) said. Kiribati authorities had not made any public announcement on the decision not to accept the passport, Chen said. Kiribati severed ties with Taiwan and switched diplomatic recognition to China in 2019. The ministry has since learned that Kiribati has toughened up its screening of all inbound foreign visitors over the past few months ahead of its parliamentary elections today. It now believes the June incident when Huang was denied a visa did not only target Taiwanese, Chen said.
CROSS-STRAIT
Crew members returned
Four crew members of a fishing boat detained by China were returned to Taiwan yesterday morning after 42 days in Chinese custody, officials said. The crew members — a Taiwanese man surnamed Ting (丁) and three Indonesians — were brought to the median line of the Taiwan Strait, where they were picked up by the Da Jin Man No. 96 fishing boat, the officials said. The captain of the detained Da Jin Man No. 88 and the boat itself are still being held in China pending the completion of judicial proceedings, they said. As China is prosecuting the case as a matter of illegal fishing during a seasonal moratorium, it involves more than only a fine and has resulted in more than a month of cross-strait negotiations. The four crew members were returned at 10:30am and were scheduled to return to Penghu County today. The captain was reportedly safe, although his movements were restricted to the hotel at which he was staying, the officials said. Former legislator Lin Pin-kuan (林炳坤) and others visited him at the hotel for 20 minutes in the morning before going to the wharf where the four fishers departed to make sure they boarded safely, they said.
ENVIRONMENT
Green achievements touted
Representative to Israel Abby Lee (李雅萍) presented Taiwan’s policies and achievements in green architecture to Israeli officials and non-governmental organizations (NGO) at a forum on Monday. Lee said that more than 30 architects, engineers and city planners attended the forum on sustainable development in Modi’in-Maccabim-Re’ut, a city in central Israel. The forum was jointly organized by NGOs including the Israel Green Building Council and the Israeli Association of Municipal Engineers. Lee spoke about Taiwan’s experience and policies relating to environmental protection, green architecture and earthquake resistance, and about its cooperation with Israel on environmental issues. Taipei and Jerusalem in 2013 signed a memorandum of understanding on environmental protection cooperation, and dialogue and exchanges between the two sides on environmental issues have been “institutionalized,” she said. In March, Taiwan announced its Pathway to Net Zero Emissions in 2050 strategy, which outlines methods and key milestones to achieve a net zero economy, according to the National Development Council.
In terms of sustainable architecture, the policy includes a milestone that “new public buildings are energy efficiency ‘class 1,’ or nearly zero emissions” by 2030, it said, adding that 100 percent of new buildings and more than 85 percent of existing buildings should be near zero emissions by 2050.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
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