DIPLOMACY
Vehicles donated to Turkey
Taiwan has donated two uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) command vehicles to Istanbul to help boost its disaster preparedness. At a ceremony on Tuesday, Representative to Turkey Huang Chih-yang (黃志揚) said it was important to strengthen Istanbul’s disaster response capabilities, given the high risk of earthquakes in the region and the city’s dense population of more than 16 million. The two drone command vehicles, which carry high-tech equipment, support a new disaster relief model that uses the latest technology, Huang said, adding that the new model incorporates the experience of drone operators who have worked in disaster relief in Turkey and Taiwan. Ergun Cebeci, head of the Istanbul disaster coordination center, expressed thanks to Taiwan on behalf of the city government.
CRIME
Drug ring busted
The Taipei Police Department on Wednesday said that it cracked a drug trafficking ring headed by a gang leader from the Heavenly Way Alliance, a major criminal organization, and arrested 10 people. The ring smuggled drugs including cocaine, amphetamine and cannabis concentrate into Taiwan, with a US national bringing the drugs into the country in his luggage. The ring leader, identified by his surname, Hsu (許), instructed members of the gang to produce and sell cannabis vape cartridges for profit. According to the police department, a special team acting on tip-offs seized 4.6kg of cannabis oil and packaging tools from March to July last year. Further investigation led the taskforce to an unnamed US national, whom it suspected of smuggling drugs into Taiwan and arrested him in September last year when he attempted to enter Taiwan. Following a series of raids, the task force arrested Hsu and nine others. After questioning, the suspects were transferred to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for further investigation.
ENTERTAINMENT
Anime meet and greet
Noriko Hidaka, the voice of Satsuki Kusakabe in the 1988 Japanese animated fantasy film My Neighbor Totoro, is to hold a meet-and-greet on Feb. 9 at the Taipei International Comics and Animation Festival. The festival takes place from Feb. 6 to 10 at the Nangang International Exhibition Center in Taipei. Hidaka, who is returning to Taiwan for the first time in 12 years, thanked her local fans in a prerecorded video for their warmth and passion, which she said continued to move her. Meanwhile, Shion Wakayama, the voice of Momo Ayase in the fantasy anime series Dandadan, is to meet with fans on Feb. 8. In addition to offering merchandise, the festival would have music performances and signing events throughout its five days, the organizers said.
A small number of Taiwanese this year lost their citizenship rights after traveling in China and obtaining a one-time Chinese passport to cross the border into Russia, a source said today. The people signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of neighboring Russia with companies claiming they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, the source said on condition of anonymity. The travelers were actually issued one-time-use Chinese passports, they said. Taiwanese are prohibited from holding a Chinese passport or household registration. If found to have a Chinese ID, they may lose their resident status under Article 9-1
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
PROBLEMATIC APP: Citing more than 1,000 fraud cases, the government is taking the app down for a year, but opposition voices are calling it censorship Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday decried a government plan to suspend access to Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu (小紅書) for one year as censorship, while the Presidential Office backed the plan. The Ministry of the Interior on Thursday cited security risks and accusations that the Instagram-like app, known as Rednote in English, had figured in more than 1,700 fraud cases since last year. The company, which has about 3 million users in Taiwan, has not yet responded to requests for comment. “Many people online are already asking ‘How to climb over the firewall to access Xiaohongshu,’” Cheng posted on
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
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