The National Communications Commission (NCC) said yesterday that the specifications of mobile satellite communications cars provided by China Mobile Ltd (中國移動) would have to obtain certification from the commission before they can be used in Taiwan.
China Mobile Ltd chairman Wang Jianzhou (王建宙) said the company was prepared to lend 10 mobile satellite communication cars to telecom carriers in Taiwan to facilitate communication in areas devastated by Typhoon Morakot. The cars are stored at Xiamen Port and may only enter Taiwan after obtaining government approval.
Liang Wen-hsing (梁溫馨), an NCC specialist, said Far EasTone (遠傳電信) was also applying to have three such cars imported. Neither Chunghwa Telecom (中華電) nor Taiwan Mobile has submitted applications to import the cars.
“By law, the commission must certify specifications of controlled telecommunications radio frequency devices imported from abroad,” Liang said, adding that using China-made mobile satellite communications cars should not raise any national security concerns.
NCC spokesperson Chen Jeng-tsang (陳正倉) said that Far EasTone must also obtain a permit from the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Bureau of Foreign Trade before the cars can be imported.
“The commission will not issue any comment on the donor [of the cars], nor will it comment on the recipient,” Chen said. “We are mainly responsible for accelerating the administrative process so that the equipment can reach disaster areas quickly.”
Meanwhile, Wang met Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) yesterday. Wu thanked Wang for making donations to Taiwan in the wake of Morakot.
Wu was the only political figure Wang has met so far in his 10-day visit. Since arriving in Taiwan on Friday, Wang has visited HTC Corp (宏達電) and the Hsinchu Science Park.
Wang donated 10 million yuan (US$1.46 million) for rescue and relief work in Taiwan. He said he was impressed by Taiwan’s rescue and relief efforts, which reminded him and many Chinese of the situation in the wake of the Sichuan earthquake last year and how Taiwanese offered assistance in the rescue and relief work.
“I hope our cooperation with local businesses in Taiwan will create a win-win situation for both sides of the Taiwan Strait,” he said.
Wu expressed gratitude for Wang and China’s assistance and said the sincerity from China would help improve the cross-strait relations.
“Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) and I agree that the two sides cannot stop natural disasters, but we can use our wisdom and capabilities to stop war across the Taiwan Strait,” Wang said.
At a separate setting yesterday, MediaTek Inc (聯發科), Taiwan’s biggest handset chipmaker, said it intends to form a partnership with China Mobile to supply handset chips supporting China’s 3G and 4G technologies.
The announcement came after Wang met MediaTek chairman Tsai Ming-kai (蔡明介) and discussed China’s 3G, or time-division synchronous code division multiple acces and 4G, or TD-LTE, technologies.
In related news, the Taiwan Aboriginal Association for Multitribal Cultural Exchange said in a statement yesterday it had decided to “distribute funds for flooding victims on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party’s Taiwan Affairs Office” within a month. The fund referred to the 20 million yuan flood relief donation Non-Partisan Solidarity Union Legislator May Chin (高金素梅) accepted from China last week.
The association was established by political allies of Chin, who is half Atayal and was elected on an Aboriginal ballot.
Chin is believed to be the de facto leader of the group. It has also created a special commission, in which Chin, her political allies and office aide are members, to handle the distribution of the money.
Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Liu Te-shun (劉德勳) yesterday said he hoped the money would be distributed to typhoon victims in a fair and appropriate manner.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY LISA WANG, LOA IOK-SIN AND KO SHU-LING
Foreign tourists who purchase a seven-day Taiwan Pass are to get a second one free of charge as part of a government bid to boost tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. A pair of Taiwan Passes is priced at NT$5,000 (US$156.44), an agency staff member said, adding that the passes can be used separately. The pass can be used in many of Taiwan’s major cities and to travel to several tourist resorts. It expires seven days after it is first used. The pass is a three-in-one package covering the high-speed rail system, mass rapid transport (MRT) services and the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle services,
Drinking a lot of water or milk would not help a person who has ingested terbufos, a toxic chemical that has been identified as the likely cause of three deaths, a health expert said yesterday. An 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾) and two others died this week after eating millet dumplings with snails that Tseng had made. Tseng died on Tuesday and others ate the leftovers when they went to her home to mourn her death that evening. Twelve people became ill after eating the dumplings following Tseng’s death. Their symptoms included vomiting and convulsions. Six were hospitalized, with two of them
DIVA-READY: The city’s deadline for the repairs is one day before pop star Jody Chiang is to perform at the Taipei Dome for the city’s Double Ten National Day celebrations The Taipei City Government has asked Farglory Group (遠雄集團) to repair serious water leaks in the Taipei Dome before Friday next week, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday, following complaints that many areas at the stadium were leaking during two baseball games over the weekend. The dome on Saturday and Sunday hosted two games in tribute to CTBC Brothers’ star Chou Szu-chi (周思齊) ahead of his retirement from the CPBL. The games each attracted about 40,000 people, filling the stadium to capacity. However, amid heavy rain, many people reported water leaking on some seats, at the entrance and exit areas, and the
BIG collection: The herbarium holds more than 560,000 specimens, from the Japanese colonial period to the present, including the Wulai azalea, which is now extinct in the wild The largest collection of plant specimens in Taiwan, the Taipei Botanical Garden’s herbarium, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an exhibition that opened on Friday. The herbarium provides critical historical documents for botanists and is the first of its kind in Taiwan, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute director Tseng Yen-hsueh (曾彥學) said. It is housed in a two-story red brick building, which opened during 1924. At the time, it stored 30,000 plant specimens from almost 6,000 species, including Taiwanese plant samples collected by Tomitaro Makino, the “father of Japanese botany,” Tseng said. The herbarium collection has grown in the century since its