■ Cross-Strait Ties
Beijing criticizes Chen
China accused President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday of hoodwinking his people by offering to swap envoys with Beijing and shake hands with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) if he was re-elected. "What he said, I think, aims only to advance his decep-tion of public opinion and fool the people of Taiwan," Taiwan affairs spokesman
Li Weiyi (李維一) told a
news conference in Beijing. Li said that if Chen were serious about building ties, he would recognize that Taiwan was part of China.
"If Chen Shui-bian were
really sincere ... he would create conditions for the resumption of talks and negotiations across the Taiwan Strait," Li said. "Otherwise, he will once again be cheating the
people of Taiwan and inter-national opinion."
■ Government
Cabinet OKs new command
The Cabinet approved a set of draft bills and revisions yesterday to establish a
new airborne rescue com-mand. The Cabinet hopes that the legislature will approve the package by
the end of next year. At present there are five airborne rescue teams belonging to the National Fire Administration, the National Police Administra-tion, the Civil Aeronautics Administration, the Coast Guard Administration and the army. The new command will be under the Ministry
of the Interior. The com-mand center will be located at Taipei's Sungshan Airport, with secondary bases at Taichung County's Shuinan Airport, Pingtung Airport, Taitung Airport and Hualien Airport. Operations not related to air rescue efforts, such as transporting patients and air-traffic patrol, will be contracted out to the private sector. A preparatory office for the new command will be inaugurated on March 10.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
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