■ SOCIET
Official still in hospital
Taipei Deputy Mayor Lin Chung-yi (林崇一), who suffered a stroke on Monday, will have to stay in the hospital for a week, city government spokesman Yang Hsiao-tung (羊曉東) said yesterday. Yang said Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) visited Lin at Taipei Veterans General Hospital on Monday night and was told that Lin’s vital signs were stable, but that he would need to stay for observation. Yang cited Hau as saying that Lin was conscious, but might not be able to shoulder heavy responsibilities in the next month. Lin was rushed to a nearby hospital on Monday after a staff meeting and was initially diagnosed as having had a mild stroke. Lin, who has a history of high blood pressure, was later transferred to Veterans General Hospital because his medical records are there.
■WEATHER
Tropical storm nearing
A tropical low pressure system located off the southeast coast was upgraded to a tropical storm yesterday afternoon, forecasters at the Central Weather Bureau said. The bureau said it may issue a sea alert for Tropical Storm Kalmaegi early this morning to advise all ships operating in waters near the northern Philippines and the Bashih Channel to exercise caution. Kalmaegi means “seagull” in Korean. The bureau said the storm could hit Taiwan and was likely to start affecting the weather today. As of press time, the center of the storm was located 540km southeast of Ouluanbi (鵝鑾鼻), Pingtung County. It was moving in a northwest direction at a speed of 10kph.
■RECREATION
Lienchiang offers canoeing
The Lienchiang County Government was set to launch its “summer fun in Matsu” canoeing event tomorrow, with free canoe rides at Mabi Bay (馬鼻灣) on Beigan (北竿) every Thursday and Saturday. The activity is being held for the second consecutive year as part of county government efforts to boost tourism. The free canoe rides will be offered from 2pm to 6pm at Tanghe Beach (塘后沙灘) on Thursdays and Saturdays, the county government’s Tourism Bureau said. Details are available online at www.matsu-play.com.tw/travel.html, the bureau said.
■ENVIRONMENT
EPA tackles toilets
The government announced a campaign to clean up the nation’s public toilets yesterday. Public restrooms will be graded according to a four-grade system to encourage operators to keep facilities clean, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said. EPA Minster Steven Shen (沈世宏) told a press conference that stickers bearing the grading “superior,” “good,” “fair” or “needs improvement” would be displayed at the entrances to public bathrooms after inspection. The grade will be based on cleanliness, lighting and ventilation. By next year, all public toilets countrywide will be integrated into the evaluation system, Shen said. Shen said that the administration would ask the operators of public restrooms that are determined to need improvement to bring them up to standard. Asked whether the administration was just trying to please tourists and focusing too much on tourist destinations, Shen said that “everyone is a tourist at some point ... tourist sites are a country’s front door ... renovation [of public bathrooms] will be carried out elsewhere across the country as soon as possible.”
City says no water rate hike
The Taipei City Government assured residents yesterday that water prices would not be raised in the near term. The decision follows an announcement by the central government on Monday that water prices would remain stable throughout the country. City government spokesman Yang Hsiao-tung (羊曉東) said yesterday that the city has its own procedure for deciding water prices, which are not under the control of the central government. Should the city decide to adjust prices, the Taipei Water Department must first submit a proposal to a city government review committee before forwarding the proposal to the Taipei City Council for approval, he said. Yang called on the public to conserve water even though prices would not be increased, adding that the water department would step up inspections of the city’s water delivery system to avoid waste caused by leakage.
■DIPLOMACY
US ‘observing’ China: MOFA
The US is still observing the level of goodwill that Beijing is willing to extend to Taiwan on diplomacy-related issues, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. Harry Tseng (曾厚仁), head of the Department of North American Affairs, told the Taipei Times that American Institute in Taiwan Director Stephen Young said during a visit to the ministry yesterday that he hoped to gain an understanding of the “diplomatic truce” proposed by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) with a view to improving relations across the Taiwan Strait. Tseng said the US feels that China is not yet ready to make a decision on how to handle Taiwan on the diplomatic front, but that Washington will continue to monitor the situation closely.
TENSIONS: The Chinese aircraft and vessels were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a joint air and sea military exercise, the Ministry of National Defense said A relatively large number of Chinese military aircraft and vessels were detected in Taiwan’s vicinity yesterday morning, apparently en route to a Chinese military exercise in the western Pacific, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. In a statement, the ministry said 36 Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft, including J-16 fighters and nuclear-capable H-6 bombers, crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or an extension of it, and were detected in the southern and southeastern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) from 5:20am to 9:30am yesterday. They were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a
Honor guards are to stop performing changing of the guard ceremonies around a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to avoid “worshiping authoritarianism,” the Ministry of Culture said yesterday. The fate of the bronze statue has long been the subject of fierce and polarizing debate in Taiwan, which has transformed from an autocracy under Chiang into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies. The changing of the guard each hour at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei is a major tourist attraction, but starting from 9am on Monday, the ceremony is to be moved outdoors to Democracy Boulevard, outside the eponymous blue-and-white memorial
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supports peaceful unification with China, and President William Lai (賴清德) is “a bit naive” for being a “practical worker for Taiwanese independence,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday. Asked about whether the KMT is on the same page as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the issue of Taiwanese independence or unification with China, Ma told the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily that they are not. While the KMT supports peaceful unification and is against unification by force, the DPP opposes unification as such and
CASES SLOWING: Although weekly COVID-19 cases are rising, the growth rate has been falling, from 90 percent to 30 percent, 14 percent and 6 percent, the CDC said COVID-19 hospitalizations last week rose 6 percent to 987, while deaths soared 55 percent to 99, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, adding that the recent wave of infections would likely peak this week. People aged 65 or older accounted for 79 percent of the hospitalizations and 90 percent of the deaths, the majority of whom have or had underlying health conditions, CDC data showed. The youngest hospitalized case last week was a six-month-old, who was born preterm and was unvaccinated, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. The infant had a fever, coughing and a runny nose early this month, but