← EDUCATION
Dictionary wins praise
The online Mandarin Chinese dictionary compiled by Taiwan’s Ministry of Education is a powerful tool for foreign students learning Chinese, a senior Belgian journalist said on Thursday. Catherine Vuylsteke, the Asian page editor of the Belgian daily De Morgen, is now studying Chinese at Taiwan’s National Cheng Kung University. Vuylsteke expressed her appreciation of the dictionary in an e-mail to the Taipei Representative Office in Belgium. The dictionary contains nearly 170,000 entries and has become the biggest Chinese dictionary data bank in the world, according to ministry officials. The dictionary allows input using the Zhuyin Fuhao (注音符號, commonly known as “bopomofo”) system, and provides definitions in Chinese. The dictionary can be found online at dict.revised.moe.edu.tw.
■ AGRICULTURE
Chinese buy produce
A group of buyers from China agreed yesterday to purchase NT$10 million (US$313,000) worth of agricultural products from the Tsou-Ma-Lai Recreational Farm in Tainan County. The delegation, from Guangdong Province’s agricultural and fishing institutions, signed an agreement with the Tainan County Farmers’ Association to buy pineapples, guavas, sugar apples and other produce grown in the county. The agreement was signed at a trade fair that is being held as part of a Taiwan-Guangdong week of activities and was witnessed by Guangdong Provincial Governor Huang Huahua (黃華華) and Taiwan’s People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜). Soong said he hoped that Guangdong buyers would continue to contribute to bilateral industrial and agricultural cooperation.
■EDUCATION
Students mull legal action
An association of Taiwanese students studying in China threatened yesterday to take legal action against a newly approved package of legal amendments that restrict the recognition of medical diplomas conferred by schools in China. Chen Cheng-teng (陳正騰), deputy head of the Taiwan Student Union said the restrictions would prevent Taiwanese graduates of Chinese medical colleges from working in Taiwan in the future. “Such a restriction seriously infringes upon their legitimate rights as Republic of China citizens to work,” Chen said. “Our association will retain a lawyer to file for a constitutional interpretation of the restriction from the Justices of the Constitutional Court.” He added his group will also file an administrative lawsuit against newly passed regulations that ban retroactive recognition of accreditation by 41 selected Chinese colleges and universities.
■POLITICS
Su starts donation drive
The Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Taipei mayoral candidate, Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), started a donation drive for his election campaign yesterday. “Small donations represent the voters’ support, and we will make sure each donation is used in election campaigns,” Su said. He also pledged to run a different election campaign by not putting campaign flags around the city, not soliciting votes by phone and not writing any rubber checks during the campaign. He said he was confident of grabbing at least 800,000 votes. “There are over two million votes in Taipei City, and my goal is to get 800,000 votes in the election,” he said. Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), who is seeking re-election, shrugged off Su’s comments. “I am confident about winning the election and receiving more votes than Su. That’s my estimation,” he said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
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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