■ CRIME
Stowaways repatriated
Ninety-four illegal Chinese migrants were repatriated yesterday to reunite with their families ahead of tomorrow’s Dragon Boat Festival with the help of the Red Cross societies of Taiwan and China. As part of a detainee swap, Chinese police also returned seven Taiwanese criminals arrested in China to Taiwanese authorities. The 94 stowaways will face judicial investigations in China, officials said. The Central News Agency reported that the boat carrying the stowaways, which set sail from Fuao Wharf in Nangan, Matsu, at 10:30am yesterday, had safely arrived in Mawei harbor in Fuzhou, Fujian Province, later yesterday.
■ SOCIETY
Amis hold rain ritual
The Amis Tribe of Chenggong Township (成?, Taitung County, yesterday held a ceremony to pray for rain, a traditional ritual that hasn’t been performed for the past 50 years. About 150 Amis, led by their leader, participated in the ceremony on the beach of Bal Wong Wong, with leaders from neighboring tribes in attendance to learn more about reviving their own tradition. As many of the younger members of the tribe have left the region, middle-aged men performed the ritual traditionally done by the young of carrying water and of catching an imaginary bird at the beginning of the ceremony. After the ritual, the men were welcomed by women carrying leaves of the Alpinia speciosa. Together, they sang and prayed for rain.
■ TOURISM
Chinese tourists 'satisfied'
Chinese tourists are generally satisfied with their sightseeing trips to Taiwan, but a majority are unhappy with the traffic in Taipei, a survey released on Monday showed. Taipei City Councilor Dai Hsi-chin (戴錫欽) told a council meeting that he had conducted the survey with the help of various travel agencies and had collected 490 valid responses. The survey showed that 65 percent of respondents were satisfied with their hotel rooms and services, and 64 percent enjoyed the food in Taiwan. However, 86 percent said they were dissatisfied with the traffic in Taipei, especially the lack of parking spaces for buses near the city’s tourist attractions. The survey also found that the Chinese tourists stayed for an average of 1.5 days in Taipei and spent an average of 14,668 yuan (NT$70,166) in the city. Lin Li-yu (林麗玉), deputy director of Taipei City’s Department of Transportation, said the department had been working with businesses and concerned authorities to solve the parking problems around the city’s tourist spots.
■ CRIME
Illegal pesticides seized
Law enforcement officers raided 18 locations around the country on Monday and seized nearly 100 tonnes of semi-finished illegal pesticides and precursors, the Taoyuan office of the Investigation Bureau said in a statement. Taoyuan office investigators, along with officials from the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health and prosecutors from various district courts, stormed 18 locations in Taipei, Kaohsiung and Yunlin, Tainan and Kaohsiung counties. They arrested a chief suspect, identified by the surname Wang, and his seven accomplices. Investigators in Taoyuan found that the group began to import the illegal pesticides and its precursor last year, passing them off through customs as “chemical products.” They said the investigation was continuing, as they suspected that a few well-known domestic pesticide companies might have assisted in the marketing of the illegal products.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
A new board game set against the backdrop of armed conflict around Taiwan is to be released next month, amid renewed threats from Beijing, inviting players to participate in an imaginary Chinese invasion 20 years from now. China has ramped up military activity close to Taiwan in the past few years, including massing naval forces around the nation. The game, titled 2045, tasks players with navigating the troubles of war using colorful action cards and role-playing as characters involved in operations 10 days before a fictional Chinese invasion of Taiwan. That includes members of the armed forces, Chinese sleeper agents and pro-China politicians
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