■ LEGISLATION
KMT will not revisit bills
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative caucus whip Hsu Shao-ping (徐少萍) yesterday said the party would not support a reconsideration of the two amendments to the Farmers Association Law (農會法) and the Fishermen Association Law (漁會法) that critics said would pave the way for the "return of black gold politics." She said the decision was made by a group of seven party members in charge of studying the feasibility of overturning the two passed amendments, adding that the party's final position on the issue would need to be approved during today's caucus meeting.
■ LEGISLATION
Amendment passes reading
A legislative committee yesterday passed the first reading of an amendment to the Physically and Mentally Disabled Citizens Protection Act (身心障礙者保護法) to increase employment opportunities for the disabled. The Sanitation, Environment and Social Welfare Committee estimates the proposed amendment would provide 4,800 additional jobs for the disabled. The Physically and Mentally Disabled Citizens Protection Act has been amended seven times since it was first enacted in 1980. Article 31 of the act stipulates that any government agency, public school, or state-run institution with 50 or more employees must reserve 2 percent of its jobs for disabled workers and that any private school, organization, or private business firm with 100 or more employees must reserve at least 1 percent of its jobs for disabled workers.
■ DIPLOMACY
Huang vows to protect ties
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will pull out all the stops to consolidate the country's diplomatic relations with its allies in Central America, Minister of Foreign Affairs James Huang (黃志芳) said on Sunday. Huang made the remarks amid reports of concern about a possible "wave of diplomatic defection to China" or "switch of diplomatic allegiance to China" of Taiwan's allies in the region. Huang headed for Belize yesterday to meet his counterparts from Central American countries that maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan. The meeting is a regular annual event which takes place alternately in Taiwan and one of its allies in the region.
■ POLITICS
Ministry to appeal CKS fine
The Ministry of Education will file an appeal if it is slapped with a fine by the Taipei City Government over the removal of dictator Chiang Kai-shek's (蔣介石) name from a memorial hall, an official said yesterday. Chu Nan-hsien (朱楠賢), director of the ministry's Social Education Department, made the remarks after Lee Yung-ping (李永萍), director of Taipei City's Cultural Affairs Department, said the day before that her department had fined the "Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall" Administration NT$100,000 for failure to remove the canvas blocking the name plate of the hall and the two giant banners on the walls of the hall. Lee said that the notice for the cloth's removal was issued on Saturday evening and that the fine was handed out on Sunday. Successive fines will be levied for violating provisions of the Cultural Assets Preservation Law if the administration of the hall, which is under the the ministry's jurisdiction, fails to take action, she added. In response, Chu said he saw nothing illegal in "putting clothes" on the National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall. If the city government insisted on its stance, Chu said, the ministry would appeal the case after receiving the fine.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it is fully aware of the situation following reports that the son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has arrived in Taiwan and is to marry a Taiwanese. Local media reported that Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), son of the former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is to marry the granddaughter of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital founder Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政). The pair met when studying abroad and arranged to get married this year, with the wedding breakfast to be held at The One holiday resort in Hsinchu
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
‘SIGN OF DANGER’: Beijing has never directly named Taiwanese leaders before, so China is saying that its actions are aimed at the DPP, a foundation official said National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) yesterday accused Beijing of spreading propaganda, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had singled out President William Lai (賴清德) in his meeting with US President Joe Biden when talking about those whose “true nature” seek Taiwanese independence. The Biden-Xi meeting took place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru on Saturday. “If the US cares about maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial that it sees clearly the true nature of Lai and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in seeking Taiwanese independence, handles the Taiwan question with extra
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
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