POLITICS
TPP lawmaker investigated
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said it is investigating claims that Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Legislator Wu Chun-cheng (吳春城) used his position to help companies affiliated with him and his family gain government contracts. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus on Thursday said Wu had failed to avoid conflicts of interest in government tenders, and that he had profited from businesses affiliated with his wife, siblings, children and in-laws. Companies affiliated with Wu and his family have won NT$1.1 billion (US$33.58 million) in government contracts, they added. The Act Promoting Development for Strong Generation Policies and Industries (壯世代政策與產業發展促進法), promoted by Wu and passed by the legislature on Jan. 24, was part of Wu’s efforts to consolidate his business empire, the DPP said. Wu said he was confident in facing inspections, as long as they are fair and political powers do not intervene. He said he had not been involved in bidding for government contracts since he became a legislator in February last year. The only tender the Strong Generation Association — a group he chaired until Jan. 24 — participated in was three years ago in Chiayi City, Wu added.
Photo: CNA
DEFENSE
Six balloons detected
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday said it detected six Chinese balloons near the nation in the 24 hours to 6am yesterday, one of the highest number of balloons detected. Nine Chinese military aircraft, six warships and two official ships were also detected near Taiwan over the same period. The balloons were spotted at an altitude of 4.8768km to 6.096km, one of which directly flew over the nation, the ministry said. Chinese balloons have been regularly spotted over waters near Taiwan in the past few months, but yesterday’s figure is one of the highest recorded, an Agence France-Presse tally of military data showed. Taiwan last year detected a record of eight Chinese balloons less than a month after the Democratic Progressive Party’s William Lai (賴清德) won the presidential election. Taiwan says the Chinese balloons are a form of “gray zone” harassment — a tactic that can exhaust the nation’s armed forces, but falls short of an act of war.
SOCIETY
Chinese ID issue probed
The Ministry of the Interior is investigating companies across Taiwan that have allegedly helped Taiwanese illegally procure Chinese IDs. It said it has already questioned more than 30 people regarding the issue. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) on Thursday said that the ministry is investigating whether travel agencies and public relations companies in northern, central and southern Taiwan have assisted Taiwanese in illegally obtaining Chinese national IDs. Taiwan’s and China’s household registration and nationality systems are “mutually exclusive,” Liu said. Under the Nationality Act (國籍法), it is illegal for Taiwanese to simultaneously possess valid Chinese and Taiwanese documents. The ministry has yet to determine whether the alleged actions by Taiwan-based organizations were “purely commercial” activities or whether they were part of broader efforts by the Chinese Communist Party to promote the political unification of Taiwan and China. The issue garnered attention recently after YouTuber Pa Chiung (八炯) said that there are companies in Taiwan that enable Taiwanese to apply for Chinese documents.
LOUD AND PROUD Taiwan might have taken a drubbing against Australia and Japan, but you might not know it from the enthusiasm and numbers of the fans Taiwan might not be expected to win the World Baseball Classic (WBC) but their fans are making their presence felt in Tokyo, with tens of thousands decked out in the team’s blue, blowing horns and singing songs. Taiwanese fans have packed out the Tokyo Dome for all three of their games so far and even threatened to drown out home team supporters when their team played Japan on Friday. They blew trumpets, chanted for their favorite players and had their own cheerleading squad who dance on a stage during the game. The team struggled to match that exuberance on the field, with
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
RSS