■ 228 incident
Lu wants to find the facts
Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) yesterday urged the public to find the facts about the 1947 228 Incident, saying that more conferences and grassroots participation is necessary to highlight the significance of the event. "Relatives of the victims who died in this incident still suffer the pains of having lost family members because the government can't concretely tell the public how the event happened," Lu said attending a conference to discuss the role of the military in the 228 Incident yesterday. Lu visited the historic site in Keelung where the 21st division of the army landed in 1947 to suppress the island-wide protest against KMT rule. Lu has urged the government to continue to find the documents and achieves related to the incident in the private sector and government departments to complete the task of discovering the truth about the event.
■ Asylum
Police keep eye on Xu Po
A Chinese man who is seeking political asylum in Taiwan is living comfortably in a Taoyuan hotel under 24-hour guard by police while his application is being processed, an officer at the Aviation Police Bureau said yesterday. Xu Po (徐波) is under house confinement but is allowed out each day with a police escort for walks. He has also been given a computer to use. Xu can contact those outside of the hotel after receiving permission from police, a bureau officer said. Commissioner of the Aviation Police Bureau Chang Si-liang (張四良) visited Xu on Lunar New Year's eve, Jan. 31, and gave him a red envelope with an undisclosed sum of money and a fruit basket, the officer said. Xu disembarked from a plane that was making a stopover in Taiwan on its way from Seoul to Bangkok Jan. 26. He claimed to be a democracy activist in China and sought political asylum. Considering him a possible political refugee, local authorities have been consulting their counterparts in South Korea and international refugee organizations on Xu's case.
■ Justice
Ministry looks to Europe
The Ministry of Justice will do its best to sign judicial assistance accords with other countries, especially those in Europe, to combat crime, ministry officials said yesterday. This remains a top priority for the ministry and it wishes to forge such an agreement with Switzerland, the officials said. The officials noted that countries involved in the high-profile Lafayette-frigate scandal are all European. Taiwan has been unable to obtain the objective until now due to the lack of formal diplomatic relations with most European nations, they said. Taiwan signed a judicial assistance accord with the US in March last year.
■ Health
WMA head to visit
World Medical Association President Dr. Kati Myllymaki is slated to reach Taipei today for a six-day visit, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. The Finnish doctor is expected to visit officials involved in Taiwan's bid to join the World Health Organization (WHO), according to the ministry. These officials include Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Michael Kau (高英茂), deputy head of the Department of Health Lee Lung-teng (李龍騰), as well as ambassador-at-large Wu Yung-tung (吳運東), according to the press release. Wu also serves as president of the Taiwan Medical Association. She is also to visit National Taiwan University Hospital and other establishments, the statement said.
TENSIONS: The Chinese aircraft and vessels were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a joint air and sea military exercise, the Ministry of National Defense said A relatively large number of Chinese military aircraft and vessels were detected in Taiwan’s vicinity yesterday morning, apparently en route to a Chinese military exercise in the western Pacific, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. In a statement, the ministry said 36 Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft, including J-16 fighters and nuclear-capable H-6 bombers, crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or an extension of it, and were detected in the southern and southeastern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) from 5:20am to 9:30am yesterday. They were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a
Honor guards are to stop performing changing of the guard ceremonies around a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to avoid “worshiping authoritarianism,” the Ministry of Culture said yesterday. The fate of the bronze statue has long been the subject of fierce and polarizing debate in Taiwan, which has transformed from an autocracy under Chiang into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies. The changing of the guard each hour at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei is a major tourist attraction, but starting from 9am on Monday, the ceremony is to be moved outdoors to Democracy Boulevard, outside the eponymous blue-and-white memorial
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supports peaceful unification with China, and President William Lai (賴清德) is “a bit naive” for being a “practical worker for Taiwanese independence,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday. Asked about whether the KMT is on the same page as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the issue of Taiwanese independence or unification with China, Ma told the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily that they are not. While the KMT supports peaceful unification and is against unification by force, the DPP opposes unification as such and
CASES SLOWING: Although weekly COVID-19 cases are rising, the growth rate has been falling, from 90 percent to 30 percent, 14 percent and 6 percent, the CDC said COVID-19 hospitalizations last week rose 6 percent to 987, while deaths soared 55 percent to 99, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, adding that the recent wave of infections would likely peak this week. People aged 65 or older accounted for 79 percent of the hospitalizations and 90 percent of the deaths, the majority of whom have or had underlying health conditions, CDC data showed. The youngest hospitalized case last week was a six-month-old, who was born preterm and was unvaccinated, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. The infant had a fever, coughing and a runny nose early this month, but