■ TRANSPORTATION
Wenhu track catches fire
The Wenhu Line on Taipei City’s MRT system experienced another problem yesterday when a track caught fire. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said the incident happened at Wende station at 1:38pm. Service was interrupted and shuttle buses were offered to commuters between Jiannan Road and Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center stations. Service resumed at 2:16pm when back-up systems switched on. Preliminary investigations showed a 50cm cable had burned. TRTC said it needed more time to determine what caused the fire and how many passengers were affected. The Wenhu Line, an extension of the Muzha Line, was inaugurated in July last year and has since suffered more than 100 malfunctions. The first major incident happened on July 10, when a power outage brought the line to a halt, stranding approximately 700 passengers on trains between stations and forcing them to walk to nearby stations along the tracks.
■ DIPLOMACY
St Kitts post upgraded
The Federation of St Kitts and Nevis has upgraded its representative to Taiwan from charge d’affaires to resident ambassador. Jasmine Huggins, St Kitts’ first ambassador to Taiwan, presented her letters of credit to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday in Taipei. Huggins said at a reception later that her new appointment as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary signals a deepening of the friendship between Basseterre and Taipei and is a significant milestone in her diplomatic career. “When I was asked to come to Taiwan to establish the [St Kitts] embassy … I could not have imagined that my acceptance of that grave responsibility would have taken me on this remarkable journey that would grant me such enormous professional and personal satisfaction,” she said.
■ JUSTICE
Groups to protest for Chen
Pro-independence groups announced yesterday they would hold a rally on May 8 — one day before Mother’s Day — against what they say is the unfair detention of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁). The Taiwan High Court ruled last week to continue to detain Chen for another two months, despite attempts by family members to wire back NT$700 million (US$22.2 million) the family has frozen in Swiss bank accounts. The groups said the rally would be a personal appeal from Chen’s mother, Chen Lee Shen (陳李慎). “Chen Lee Shen was crying so hard after the ruling that she is going blind in one eye,” organizers said. The rally is scheduled to take place on both Ketagalan Boulevard and in front of the legislature’s side door on Jinan Road in Taipei City.
■ EDUCATION
KMT to reinstate scholarship
After a 10-year hiatus, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) could decide to reinstate the Sun Yat-sen scholarships, a party official said. President Ma and KMT Secretary-General King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) could soon be invited to give oral tests to candidates, as both were recipients of the scholarship and have good command of the English language, said Lin Yung-juei (林永瑞), a KMT official in charge of administrative management. Ma, who doubles as KMT chairman, will meet KMT officials on Thursday for discussions on reinstating the scholarship, established in 1960 to send talented young people abroad for advanced studies in different disciplines. The plan is for 10 young men and women, under 40 years of age, to receive the scholarships worth NT$15 million this year, Lin said.
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
The Chinese military has boosted its capability to fight at a high tempo using the element of surprise and new technology, the Ministry of National Defense said in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) published on Monday last week. The ministry highlighted Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) developments showing significant changes in Beijing’s strategy for war on Taiwan. The PLA has made significant headway in building capabilities for all-weather, multi-domain intelligence, surveillance, operational control and a joint air-sea blockade against Taiwan’s lines of communication, it said. The PLA has also improved its capabilities in direct amphibious assault operations aimed at seizing strategically important beaches,
‘MALIGN PURPOSE’: Governments around the world conduct espionage operations, but China’s is different, as its ultimate goal is annexation, a think tank head said Taiwan is facing a growing existential threat from its own people spying for China, experts said, as the government seeks to toughen measures to stop Beijing’s infiltration efforts and deter Taiwanese turncoats. While Beijing and Taipei have been spying on each other for years, experts said that espionage posed a bigger threat to Taiwan due to the risk of a Chinese attack. Taiwan’s intelligence agency said China used “diverse channels and tactics” to infiltrate the nation’s military, government agencies and pro-China organizations. The main targets were retired and active members of the military, persuaded by money, blackmail or pro-China ideology to steal
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
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