■ INSURANCE
No transfer for summer jobs
The Bureau of National Health Insurance yesterday said students who get summer jobs do not need to transfer their insurance to the company that employs them. The bureau said most students are insured under their parents and that when they start a temporary summer job, they do not need to transfer their national health insurance to their employer and then back under their parents after the job contract ends. The measure is meant to ensure that students who forget to make the transfer do not face a period without health insurance coverage, as well as save time and paperwork. The bureau said it had recently received an increasing number of inquiries about health insurance and summer jobs.
■ EXHIBITION
200,000th visitor expected
The Taiwan Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo is set to greet its 200,000th visitor today, 53 days into the expo, the pavilion’s manager said yesterday. The 200,000th visitor, who is expected to arrive in a 37-member tour group, will be presented with an 11.6-inch Acer notebook worth NT$29,800, pavilion manager Walter Yeh (葉明水) said. The 199,999th and 200,001st visitors will also receive 24-inch LCD monitors worth NT$15,000 each. Wang Chih-kang (王志剛), chairman of the Taiwan External Trade Development Council, which sponsored the Taiwan Pavilion, is scheduled to fly to Shanghai to preside over the occasion, Yeh said. The pavilion greeted its 100,000th visitor on May 25.
■ CRIMES
Councilor fined for assault
A politician was fined NT$122,000 yesterday after he was convicted of pushing a Chinese envoy to the ground in an incident that angered Beijing, court officials said. Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Tainan City Councilor Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) was convicted in September last year and sentenced to a four-month jail term for “assaulting” Zhang Mingqing (張銘清) in 2008. Wang had pleaded not guilty, but his appeal was rejected by the High Court last month. He was allowed, as an alternative to jail, to pay a fine of NT$1,000 daily for four months. He paid the fine yesterday to close the case. The incident happened when Zhang was visiting Tainan, a DPP stronghold. The incident was caught on camera and triggered Beijing’s fury, with the Chinese government calling for the “severe punishment” of those found guilty.
■ DIPLOMACY
Taiwan to give US$50,000
The Republic of China embassy in El Salvador said yesterday it would provide US$50,000 to help improve the offices of the Central American country’s Presidential Commission for Customer Protection. The Taiwanese government will purchase office equipment, including laptops, PCs, scanners and printers, for the Presidential Commission’s help centers, the embassy said. Improving customer protection is a worldwide trend and since the commission was established in El Salvador, it has helped to safeguard customer rights by setting up centers in major cities across the country, the embassy said. The centers have received an increasing number of customer complaints and successfully assisted consumers in obtaining record levels of compensation from corporations, it said. El Salvador has expressed its appreciation to Ambassador Carlos Liao (廖世傑) and the Taiwanese government, saying that Taiwan’s donation would help the commission boost efficiency and enhance customer protection.
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢), a Taiwanese businessman and deputy convener of the nation’s National Climate Change Committee, said yesterday that “electrical power is national power” and nuclear energy is “very important to Taiwan.” Tung made the remarks, suggesting that his views do not align with the country’s current official policy of phasing out nuclear energy, at a forum organized by the Taiwan People’s Party titled “Challenges and Prospects of Taiwan’s AI Industry and Energy Policy.” “Taiwan is currently pursuing industries with high added- value and is developing vigorously, and this all requires electricity,” said the chairman
‘POOP ON STAGE’: The song, which talks about the reluctance to graduate and anxiety about a lack of job opportunities, resonated with many students’ feelings The original song Poop on Stage has been chosen as National Taiwan University’s (NTU) graduation song this year, sparking much debate regarding the song’s title and content, which describes students’ anxiety about post-graduation unemployment. The title, Shang Tai Da Bian (上台大便), is a play on words that literally means “go on stage to poop.” The first three characters, shang tai da (上台大), also mean “to attend NTU,” as “Taida” is a common abbreviation for the university. The last character, bian (便), can mean “convenient” or “then,” but is more commonly associated with defecation. The lyrics of the song describe students’ reluctance to graduate and
RSS