GOVERNMENT
NSB general impeached
All 13 Control Yuan members voted to impeach National Security Bureau (NSB) Major General Hsieh Ching-hua (謝靜華) for allegedly assaulting a woman in February. The case is to be handed to the Disciplinary Court for trial, the Control Yuan said yesterday. Hsieh was found to have forcibly kissed a woman on a sidewalk, it said. The scene was caught on camera and revealed by the press. The watchdog said that Hsieh had consumed alcohol before the incident, adding that he had lied during the NSB investigation, which led to the agency providing false information to the public. Hsieh had violated the victim and damaged the reputation of NSB special agents, the Control Yuan said. NSB personnel faced higher scrutiny and are held to higher standards than other public servants due to the nature of the agency’s national intelligence work, it added. The NSB in a statement said that it respects the conclusions reached by the Control Yuan and would cooperate with the Disciplinary Court trial. The bureau also pledged to boost the training of its personnel and said that any misconduct would be handled appropriately.
LEGISLATIVE YUAN
Session extended to Jan. 21
The legislative session would be extended to Jan. 21 to allow for the passing of the delayed budget bill and other contested legislation, Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) said on Wednesday. The Legislative Yuan meets twice a year, from February to May and from September to December, with the option to extend sessions if necessary. Since the second session started on Sept. 20, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party lawmakers, who together hold a majority of seats, have repeatedly blocked the Cabinet’s NT$3.33 trillion (US$102.32 billion) budget proposal. They say that the budget failed to include funding for changes made by the legislature earlier this year, and demanded that the Cabinet revise and resubmit the plan. The Democratic Progressive Party on Nov. 7 ceded to their demands following a meeting between Cabinet officials and legislative leaders.
CRIME
Case judgement sought
Prosecutors have requested a summary judgement against a Kaohsiung woman who earlier this year allegedly called the 110 emergency number multiple times in the middle of the night to insult police officers. A court filing by the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office said that the 57-year-old woman, surnamed Lin (林), made nine calls to police using the 110 emergency hotline between 2am and 4am on Aug. 6. In her first call, Lin said she wanted to file a police report. When the officer on duty inquired about details, she asked him if he had “forgotten to bring his brain to work,” the filing said. The officer then played Lin a recording informing her that calling 110 without justification and ignoring subsequent warnings could be punishable as a crime against public order, at which point she hung up, the filing said. Soon after, Lin called the hotline again, swearing at the officers on duty and referring to them as “animals” and “garbage,” it said. Officers from the Kaohsiung Police Department’s Sinsing Precinct arrested her on suspicion of obstructing an officer. Prosecutors said Lin’s actions had contravened Article 140 of the Criminal Code and requested that the Kaohsiung District Court issue a summary judgement against her, as the facts of the case were not in dispute. Obstructing a public official is punishable by a prison sentence of up to one year or a maximum fine of NT$100,000.
A preclearance service to facilitate entry for people traveling to select airports in Japan would be available from Thursday next week to Feb. 25 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said on Tuesday. The service was first made available to Taiwanese travelers throughout the winter vacation of 2024 and during the Lunar New Year holiday. In addition to flights to the Japanese cities of Hakodate, Asahikawa, Akita, Sendai, Niigata, Okayama, Takamatsu, Kumamoto and Kagoshima, the service would be available to travelers to Kobe and Oita. The service can be accessed by passengers of 15 flight routes operated by
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
MORE FALL: An investigation into one of Xi’s key cronies, part of a broader ‘anti-corruption’ drive, indicates that he might have a deep distrust in the military, an expert said China’s latest military purge underscores systemic risks in its shift from collective leadership to sole rule under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), and could disrupt its chain of command and military capabilities, a national security official said yesterday. If decisionmaking within the Chinese Communist Party has become “irrational” under one-man rule, the Taiwan Strait and the regional situation must be approached with extreme caution, given unforeseen risks, they added. The anonymous official made the remarks as China’s Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia (張又俠) and Joint Staff Department Chief of Staff Liu Zhenli (劉振立) were reportedly being investigated for suspected “serious
Taiwanese and US defense groups are collaborating to introduce deployable, semi-autonomous manufacturing systems for drones and components in a boost to the nation’s supply chain resilience. Taiwan’s G-Tech Optroelectronics Corp subsidiary GTOC and the US’ Aerkomm Inc on Friday announced an agreement with fellow US-based Firestorm Lab to adopt the latter’s xCell, a technology featuring 3D printers fitted in 6.1m container units. The systems enable aerial platforms and parts to be produced in high volumes from dispersed nodes capable of rapid redeployment, to minimize the risk of enemy strikes and to meet field requirements, they said. Firestorm chief technology officer Ian Muceus said
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