■ 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.
COLLABORATION: As TSMC is building an advanced wafer fab in Dresden, Germany, it needs to build a comprehensive supply chain in Europe, Joseph Wu said Taiwan is planning to team up with the Czech Republic to build a semiconductor cluster in the European country, National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said on Friday. Wu, who led a Taiwanese delegation at the annual GLOBSEC Forum held in Prague from Friday to today, said in a news conference that Taiwan seeks to foster cooperation between Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) and its counterparts in Czechia. Such cooperation is expected to transform the country into one of the most important semiconductor clusters in Europe over the next three to five years, he added. As TSMC is building an advanced
A joint declaration by Pacific leaders was reissued yesterday morning with mentions of Taiwan removed after China slammed an earlier version as a “mistake” that “must be corrected.” After five days of talks in Tonga, a “cleared” communique was released on Friday that reaffirmed a 30-year-old agreement allowing Taiwan to take part in the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF). However, the wording immediately raised the ire of Chinese diplomats, who piled pressure on Pacific leaders to amend the document. The forum reissued the communique without explanation yesterday morning, conspicuously deleting the paragraph concerning the bloc’s “relations with Taiwan.” “It must be a
China lacks the ability to “fully” invade Taiwan as it does not have the equipment, but is bringing online advanced new weapons and has other options to threaten Taiwan, such as inspecting foreign cargo ships, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said yesterday. In an annual threat assessment of China sent to lawmakers, a copy of which was reviewed by Reuters, the ministry said Beijing continues to hone skills such as joint command operations. “However, the use of tactics and strategies against Taiwan is still limited by the natural geographical environment of the Taiwan Strait and insufficient landing equipment and logistic capabilities,”
A tropical depression in waters east of the Philippines could develop into a tropical storm as soon as today and bring rainfall as it approaches, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, while issuing heat warnings for 14 cities and counties. Weather model simulations show that there are still considerable differences in the path that the tropical depression is projected to take. It might pass through the Bashi Channel to the South China Sea or turn northeast and move toward the sea south of Japan, CWA forecaster Yeh Chih-chun (葉致均) said, adding that the uncertainty of its movement is still high,