■ Society
Hon Hai boss' wife dies
Lin Shu-ru, (林淑如), the wife of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) died at National Taiwan University Hospital on Saturday night of liver and lung failure after a long battle with breast cancer. She was 55. Lin had been battling breast cancer for three years. She made her last public appearance last July hand-in-hand with her husband at the wedding of their son Gou Shou-cheng (郭守正). Forbes magazine claims Terry Gou is the country's wealthiest man. He was ranked 170 on the magazine's list of the world's billionaires.
■ Politics
DPP seeking young experts
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday said that the party will consider young law experts and academics as priority nominees for the National Assembly elections. Su said Yeh Chun-jung (葉俊榮), chairman of the Cabinet's Research, Development and Evaluation Commission and Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission Chairman Hsu Chih-hsiung (許志雄) will both be nominees. Both have specialized in law and constitutional study. Su also said that if the DPP's local party branch nominates him as a candidate, he would ask the party to put his name last on the list of nominees.
■ Cross-strait ties
Kinmen plans giant Guanyin
Kinmen wants to build a giant statue of Guanyin (Avalokitesvara in Sanskrit) to serve as an inspiration for peace across the Taiwan Strait. Residents yesterday elected Kinmen County Commissioner Lee Chu-feng (李炷烽) to chair a committee supervising the building and management of a 36m-high white stone statue of the bodhisattva. Residents envisage building the island into a mecca for Buddhists, which will also serve as a "torch of peace" for people across the Taiwan Strait, Lee said after attending the first meeting of the committee. Buddhists in Kinmen decided last June that the island should build the Guanyin using white stone from Quanzhou, Fujian Province, to make the statue a Kinmen landmark. In a very short period of time, nearly NT$18 million (US$580,000) million) was raised for the project. Participants at yesterday's meeting, however, failed to reach a consensus on where the statue should be established. At least four township chiefs lobbied for their towns to be chosen.
■ Cross-strait ties
Women stage protest
A group of women organized by the Non-war Action Alliance of Taiwan protested in front of the Legislative Yuan yesterday against Beijing's proposed "anti-secession" law. The demonstrators put up posters and chanted "no war" and "peace." Chou Shen-hsin (周聖心), convener of the alliance, said that almost all wars were initiated by men, and women -- who account for half of the global population -- were always the victims.
■ Tourism
Taipei expo promoted
A Taipei City mission, headed by Deputy Mayor Yeh Chin-chuan (葉金川), left for Toronto yesterday to promote the Taipei International Healthy City Expo 2005. City officials said that the delegation will head to to Indianapolis, Indiana and then Copenhagen, Denmark and Helsinki, Finland before returning home on Friday. The expo, which brought together the chiefs of 16 international cities in Taipei last year, is expected to attract 40 to 50 city chiefs from around the world this year, they said.
SCENARIOS: A potential conflict with Beijing would not be similar to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and China would target energy and food supplies, a researcher said China is likely to continue using economic and cyberoperations against Taiwan to force it to capitulate without resorting to a military attack, Fox News reported yesterday, citing the outcome of a tabletop exercise. Washington-based think tank the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) earlier this month held a tabletop exercise in Taipei focusing on Beijing’s use of economic and cybercoercion against Taiwan. The FDD mentioned an “anaconda strategy,” in which Beijing would likely use cyberwarfare and disinformation campaigns followed by a blockade or other measures to strangulate Taiwan, rather than attempting an invasion, the report said. A large-scale cyberattack would be
HSINCHU CASES: Five people among 35 who were reported being sick were still in hospital after eating at a vendor in a market in Jhubei, the local health agency said Thirty-five people have sought medical treatment for acute symptoms after allegedly eating banh mi (Vietnamese sandwiches) from a vendor in Jhubei City (竹北), the Hsinchu County Public Health Bureau said yesterday. The bureau said that since Saturday, it has received several reports of suspected food poisoning from hospitals. The vendor has been ordered to temporarily suspend its business, it said, adding that tests were being conducted to determine whether the people had food poisoning, with results expected in about two weeks. A preliminary investigation showed that the people who sought treatment had recently eaten banh mi at a vendor at a retail market
GOOD MODEL: Speaking at his book launch, Law said that Taiwan is the most democratic Chinese-speaking country, which is why Hong Kongers relocated here China has suffocated Hong Kong’s civil society and its next target could be Taiwan, Nathan Law (羅冠聰), cofounder of the disbanded pro-democracy Hong Kong political party Demosisto, said in Taipei yesterday. Law made the remarks at a launch in Taipei for his book When the Wind Blows — the Struggles for Freedom of Hong Kong (時代推著我們前行:羅冠聰的香港備忘錄). Law has been living in the UK since he fled Hong Kong in 2020, and the book is about his fighting for the cause of freedom in the area. He was granted political asylum in 2021. “Fleeing is a long and distressing process, but it also
IMITATING OTHERS? Tsai Ing-wen’s office said the former president rents a commercial unit for her personal office and had never used election funds to purchase real estate Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday confirmed that he used about NT$43 million (US$1.35 million) from his presidential election subsidy to purchase an office unit near the Legislative Yuan in May. Ko made the remarks after Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) earlier in the day told a news conference that she received a tip-off that the TPP chairman had purchased a 48.76 ping (161.2m2) office unit at Jinan Building (濟南大樓), a commercial building in Taipei’s Zhongzheng District (中正). Lin said that Ko purchased the unit on May 10, paying about NT$43 million in cash,