MILITARY
PLA deployment detailed
China dispatched 82 warplanes and vessels to areas near Taiwan on Wednesday, the last day of its latest military exercises in the region, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) sent 59 planes into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone, 18 of which crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait, while 13 others crossed its extension, a flight map released by the ministry showed. The incursions began at 6:10am on Wednesday and continued until 8:10pm, the ministry said. Codenamed “Strait Thunder 2025-A,” the drills were a continuation of China’s latest round of military exercise that started the previous day, which the PLA Eastern Theater Command said were meant as “a stern warning” to “Taiwan independence” separatist forces. During Wednesday’s drills, 23 Chinese warships and eight official ships were also detected in waters around Taiwan, the ministry said. At a news conference on Wednesday, the ministry confirmed that the PLA had been carrying out live-fire drills in the East China Sea that morning.
WEATHER
Warm days, chilly nights
Sunny to cloudy weather is to continue today, but temperatures are to remain chilly in the central and northern parts of the country in the early morning due to the radiative cooling effect, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday. As a cold air mass weakened yesterday, daytime temperatures rose to 24oC to 27oC in the western half of Taiwan, and 21oC to 23oC in the eastern half, it said. However, temperatures were to drop steeply at night to 11oC to 14oC in northern and central Taiwan, and in Yilan County, and to 15oC to 17oC in the south and east, it added. From tomorrow to Wednesday next week, isolated showers are expected in the northern and eastern parts of Taiwan and on the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), as well as in mountainous areas of central and southern Taiwan, it said.
POLITICS
Ko back in detention
Former Taiwan People’s Party chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday returned to the Taipei Detention Center after undergoing kidney stone surgery a day earlier. Ko, 65, left Taipei Hospital in a wheelchair and center personnel drove him back to the facility in Tucheng District (土城), New Taipei City, in the afternoon. The operation went well, and Ko was kept for observation for a day, the hospital in Sinjhuang District (新莊) said in a statement yesterday. Ko expressed his desire to be discharged at about noon and was given three days of antibiotics and medication, the hospital said. The former Taipei mayor has been detained on corruption allegations since September last year. He was indicted in December on bribery, embezzlement and breach of trust charges dating back to his second term as Taipei mayor from 2018 to 2022 and during last year’s presidential race.
CRIME
Baby’s autopsy scheduled
The Chiayi District Prosecutors’ Office has scheduled an autopsy on Wednesday next week to determine the cause of death of a newborn whose body was found in front of a deserted residence in Budai Township (布袋), Chiayi County, the office said in a statement. The Budai Precinct said that at 8:12am on Wednesday, it received a report about a baby in a box left in front of an abandoned residence. First responders who arrived at the scene found the baby with no vital signs, and police cordoned off the area to collect evidence, while notifying prosecutors to investigate the cause of death, the precinct said in a statement. The baby was likely born after being carried to near full term, with its umbilical cord still attached, prosecutors said.
Several Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) officials including Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) are to be summoned for questioning and then transferred to prosecutors for holding an illegal assembly in Taipei last night, the Taipei Police said today. Chu and two others hosted an illegal assembly and are to be requested to explain their actions, the Taipei City Police Department's Zhongzheng (中正) First Precinct said, referring to a protest held after Huang Lu Chin-ju (黃呂錦茹), KMT Taipei's chapter director, and several other KMT staffers were questioned for alleged signature forgery in recall petitions against Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators. Taipei prosecutors had filed
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
NEW WORLD: Taiwan is pursuing innovative approaches to international relations through economics, trade and values-based diplomacy, the foreign minister said Taiwan would implement a “three-chain strategy” that promotes democratic values in response to US tariffs, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said. Taiwan would aim to create a “global democratic value chain,” seek to capitalize on its position within the first island chain and promote a “non-red supply chain,” Lin was quoted as saying in the ministry’s written report to the Legislative Yuan submitted ahead of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee meeting slated for today. The Ministry would also uphold a spirit of mutual beneficial collaboration, maintaining close communication and consultations with Washington to show that Taiwan-US cooperation
Taiwan and the US have begun trade negotiations over tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump earlier this month, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said in an interview this morning before reporting to the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee. The Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO), Taiwan’s de facto embassy in the US, has already established communication channels with the US Department of State and the US Trade Representative (USTR), and is engaging in intensive consultations, he said. Points of negotiation include tariffs, non-tariff trade barriers and issues related to investment, procurement and export controls, he
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