Taiwanese taekwondo athlete Yang Shu-chun (楊淑君) took the silver medal in the women’s 49kg category at the World Taekwondo Championships yesterday in Gyeongju, South Korea.
Yang recorded impressive victories in her march to the final, but she could not overcome China’s Wu Jingyu (吳靜鈺) and lost 6-2 in the final.
Yang is competing internationally for the first time since being suspended for three months by the World Taekwondo Federation in December last year for staging a sit-down protest and refusing to leave the mat following her disqualification in her opening bout at last year’s Asian Games in Guangzhou, China, on Nov. 17.
Yang told the media before she left for South Korea that she “would not overthink” the situation and would simply concentrate on putting forth her best effort in each bout.
However, she said her ultimate goal is to win at next year’s London Summer Olympics.
Ho Feng-yen (何豐彥), secretary-general of the nation’s taekwondo association, said yesterday that he is optimistic that Yang would win the World Qualification Tournament scheduled for June 30 in Azerbaijan.
He said the fact that Yang reached the finals proved that her techniques are truly on an international level.
Ho also said Yang did not appear at her best in this tournament because she only resumed her training in early March.
Meanwhile, fellow Taiwanese taekwondo competitor Wei Chen-yang (魏辰洋) took the bronze medal in the men’s 58kg category.
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
SECURITY: The purpose for giving Hong Kong and Macau residents more lenient paths to permanent residency no longer applies due to China’s policies, a source said The government is considering removing an optional path to citizenship for residents from Hong Kong and Macau, and lengthening the terms for permanent residence eligibility, a source said yesterday. In a bid to prevent the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from infiltrating Taiwan through immigration from Hong Kong and Macau, the government could amend immigration laws for residents of the territories who currently receive preferential treatment, an official familiar with the matter speaking on condition of anonymity said. The move was part of “national security-related legislative reform,” they added. Under the amendments, arrivals from the Chinese territories would have to reside in Taiwan for
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