■ POLITICS
King to visit two countries
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Secretary-General King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) will embark on a one-week visit to Japan and Singapore today to promote party diplomacy. The KMT's candidate for Greater Tainan mayor, Kuo Tien-tsai (郭添財), will join King on the Japan segment of the trip from today through Sunday, and the party's mayoral candidate in Greater Kaohsiung, Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順), will accompany King on the Singapore leg from Sunday through Tuesday next week. In Tokyo, King said he would meet and deliver an invitation from President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to Liberal Democratic Party President Sadakazu Tanigaki to visit Taiwan. King is also scheduled to meet members of the Democratic Party of Japan, the Japan-ROC Dietmen's Council and the deputy governor of Tokyo. King declined to give any details of his Singapore itinerary, saying that it was part of an understanding the KMT reached with the city-state.
■ INDUSTRY
US experts inspect complex
Six industrial safety experts from the US arrived in the country on Monday to help probe the causes of two fires that broke out at Formosa Plastics Group's naphtha cracker complex in July. The group from the Mary Kay O'Connor Process Safety Center, headed by M. Sam Mannan, came at the invitation of the group's management. During their five-day stay, Mannan and his group will also offer suggestions on how to improve safety and efficiency at the petrochemical complex — home to more than 60 petrochemical factories — in Mailiao, Yunlin County. The second fire that broke out at the complex on July 25 triggered major protests by local residents, who demanded compensation for losses on their farms and fish farms caused by the blaze's smoke and pollution. The group offered to pay NT$500 million (US$15.75 million) in compensation, which the protesters eventually accepted.
■ MEDIA
ICRT upgrades signal
International Community Radio Taipei (ICRT), the nation's only all-English radio station, came through loud and clear in the Chiayi region on Monday for the first time in 31 years of broadcasting. ICRT solved the previous problem of weak signals and disruption from unlicensed “underground” stations by installing a new relay station in the area, resulting in clear broadcasts for audiences in the Chiayi area and some parts of Yunlin and Tainan counties. Chiayi Mayor Huang Ming-hui (黃敏惠) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiang Yi-hsiung (江義雄) had lobbied the Government Information Office and other agencies for years to make the improvement.
■ POLITICS
Hsu stripped of membership
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday stripped Legislator-at-Large Hsu Shu-po (許舒博) of his party membership after he was found guilty of corruption by the Taiwan High Court on Wednesday last week. Hsu was sentenced to seven years and six months in prison for taking bribes from the National Chinese Herbal Apothecary Association in 1998. He was acquitted by the Taipei District Court in the first trial in January last year. Seven other former and incumbent lawmakers have also been sentenced by the high court. They can still file an appeal with the Supreme Court. The KMT said party regulations stipulate that members who are found guilty in a second trial should be stripped of membership and expelled. The expulsion would cost Hsu the seat he took over from former legislator Lee Chia-chin (李嘉進) in October last year.
Hong Kong-based American singer-songwriter Khalil Fong (方大同) has passed away at the age of 41, Fong’s record label confirmed yesterday. “With unwavering optimism in the face of a relentless illness for five years, Khalil Fong gently and gracefully bid farewell to this world on the morning of February 21, 2025, stepping into the next realm of existence to carry forward his purpose and dreams,” Fu Music wrote on the company’s official Facebook page. “The music and graphic novels he gifted to the world remain an eternal testament to his luminous spirit, a timeless treasure for generations to come,” it said. Although Fong’s
China’s military buildup in the southern portion of the first island chain poses a serious threat to Taiwan’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply, a defense analyst warned. Writing in a bulletin on the National Defense and Security Research’s Web site on Thursday, Huang Tsung-ting (黃宗鼎) said that China might choke off Taiwan’s energy supply without it. Beginning last year, China entrenched its position in the southern region of the first island chain, often with Russia’s active support, he said. In May of the same year, a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) force consisting of a Type 054A destroyer, Type 055 destroyer,
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was questioned by prosecutors for allegedly orchestrating an attack on a taxi driver after he was allegedly driven on a longer than necessary route in a car he disliked. The questioning at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office was ongoing as of press time last night. Police have recommended charges of attempted murder. The legally embattled actor — known for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代) — is under a separate investigation for allegedly using fake medical documents to evade mandatory military service. According to local media reports, police said Wang earlier last year ordered a
POLICY UNCHANGED? Despite Trump’s remarks, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio assured that US policy toward Taiwan has remained consistent since the 1970s US President Donald Trump on Wednesday again refused to make clear his stance on protecting Taiwan from a hypothetical takeover by China during his presidency. Asked by a reporter during a Cabinet meeting whether it was his policy that China would never take Taiwan by force while he is president, Trump declined to give a definitive answer. “I never comment on that,” he said. “I don’t comment on it because I don’t want to ever put myself in that position.” Trump also reiterated that he has a “great relationship” with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and said that Washington welcomes good relations with
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