■ EDUCATION
Wang Dan to teach history
Wang Dan (王丹), one of the student leaders of the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy protests, has been hired to teach cross-strait history in Taiwan’s National Chengchi University, a school official said. Wang will be a visiting scholar at the university from Aug. 1 to the end of February next year, Hsueh Hua-yuan (薛化元), dean of the school’s Graduate Institute of Taiwan History, said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. Wang will teach a class on China and Taiwan in the 1950s, Hsueh said. Wang, 40, has been living in exile in the US since fleeing China after the Chinese army crushed pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in June 1989. He received a PhD from Harvard University last year and wrote a doctoral dissertation entitled: A Comparative Study of State Violence in Mainland China and Taiwan in the 1950s.
■ ENVIRONMENT
Volvo to recall sedans
The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) yesterday demanded that Volvo Group recall all diesel sedan model XC70s sold before last August because its nitrogen oxide emissions exceed the national limit. The EPA said that whereas Article 5 of the Vehicular Air Pollutant Emission Standards (交通工具空氣污染物排放標準) states that nitrogen oxide emissions should not exceed 0.25g per kilogram, the Volvo XC70 emissions are at 0.28g per kilogram. This year’s XC70 model has passed EU emissions tests, the EPA said, however older versions sold from October 2007 to August last year — a total of 154 cars — have emissions that do not meet this standard and therefore should be recalled. Volvo will begin to contact the owners of the vehicles, the EPA said, adding that those contacted should cooperate with the company to help improve air quality.
■ POLITICS
Ma offers virtual tour
Anyone interested in President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) day-to-day life can now log on to the Presidential Office Web site and Ma will give you a virtual tour of his office. As a part of efforts marking Ma’s first year in office, the Presidential Office on Wednesday posted a video featuring Ma offering the public a glimpse of the country’s center of power. During the 12-minute video, Ma shows viewers a bronze horse given to him by one of his supporters in Taipei, books that he recommends reading, Chinese calligraphy by Fu Shen (傅申) and Chang Ping-huang (張炳煌), paintings by a 228 victim’s family member, Liao De-cheng (廖德政), and works by physically challenged foot and mouth painter Yang En-dian (楊恩典). One of the photographs in the office that he particularly likes, Ma says, features him eating red bean cake, as his wife looks at him with a stern expression. Ma said her look is one that is familiar to him and that she must be thinking at that moment: “Why am I married to this man?”
■ DIPLOMACY
AIT closed for holidays
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) will be closed on Monday (May 25) in observance of US Memorial Day and on Thursday next week in observance of the Dragon Boat Festival, the AIT said in a press release yesterday. All AIT sections and offices, including the Consular Section, Commercial Section, Agricultural Trade Office, American Cultural Center and AIT Kaohsiung branch office will be closed for the holidays, the press release said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
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