■LAW
Chiu Yi found innocent
Taipei District Court yesterday found Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) not guilty in a slander suit filed by former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷). Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) told a court hearing in February last year that former Bureau of Investigation director-general Yeh Sheng-mao (葉盛茂) told him that Hsieh wired NT$1billion (US$30 million) to Singapore through his family. Asked to comment on the remark, Chiu told reporters that Hsieh wired the fund overseas through his wife’s family, and that it must have been dirty money. The district court ruled that Chiu’s remark was related to corruption and money laundering, which were hot issues at the time and they could be discussed in public, so it found Chiu not guilty. Hsieh can appeal the ruling to the Taiwan High Court.
■POPULATION
Ministry wants more babies
The Ministry of the Interior is offering NT$1 million (US$31,000) for a catchy slogan to help boost the nation’s dwindling birth rate, one of the world’s lowest. “We are seeking a creative slogan that would appeal to the public and make everybody want to have children,” an interior ministry statement said. Authorities have offered various incentives in an unsuccessful bid to boost birth rates amid growing concern that a severe manpower shortage will trigger social and economic problems. The birth rate stood at 8.29 births per 1,000 people last year, the ministry said. That compares with a global average of more than 20 births per 1,000 people, according to UN statistics.
■AVIATION
Runways to be lengthened
The runways at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport will be lengthened to allow for the landing of the Airbus A380 and other big aircraft, the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) said on Monday. The CEPD approved the project submitted by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications to remodel facilities at the airport in line with an ambitious “Taoyuan Aerotropolis” plan. The Taoyuan Aerotropolis plan — set to be completed in 2020 — involves the expansion of existing airport terminals, the establishment of an aerospace industrial park and special zones for cargo, passenger and logistics services. Under the project, scheduled to be completed by mid-2014 at a cost of NT$10.7 billion (US$310 million), the length of runways and taxiways will be extended to allow for the landing of big planes, including Airbus 380s, the CEPD said.
■MILITARY
More missiles in China
Andrei Pinkov, of the Toronto-based Kanwa Asian Defence Monthly, has said S300PMU2 long-range surface-to-air missiles have been deployed at Longtian military airport in China’s Fujian Province. Pinkov said satellite images show that eight launch vehicles for the Russian-model S300PMU2 missiles, which have a range of 200km, are now stationed at the Longtian base. The base also has S300PMU1 missiles that are launched from vehicles made in Belarus and have a range of 150km. The S300PMU2 rockets are guided by 30N6E2 radars that can simultaneously track 100 targets within a 350km range. Also available are 64N6E2 search radars that can seek out 300 airborne targets at the same time, within a range of 300km. The system can guide 72 missiles to attack 36 airborne targets, with a system reaction time of between seven and 11 seconds, the report said.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to