FOREIGN AFFAIRS
EU lawmakers to visit Taipei
A 12-person delegation led by European Parliament member Reinhard Butikofer, a cochair of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), is to visit Taiwan from today until Friday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. The group also includes five other IPAC cochairs and two members. It is to be the first formal IPAC delegation to visit Taiwan since the alliance was founded in June 2020. The ministry expressed its gratitude to the incoming delegation, which follows on the heels of visits by French and German lawmakers, as well as other European parliamentarians. The multinational delegations “demonstrate firm support for Taiwan through practical action,” IPAC said. Twenty-nine legislatures are represented in IPAC, created to facilitate a coordinated response to challenges posed by China. IPAC called for greater support for Taiwan after its first-ever summit in September.
EARTHQUAKES
Tremor shakes Taitung
A magnitude 5.0 earthquake struck Taitung at 4:48pm yesterday, the Central Weather Bureau said. There were no reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter of the quake was located about 18.6km north-northeast of Taitung County Hall, at a depth of 10km, the bureau’s Seismology Center said. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a quake, reached 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, indicating intense shaking of buildings and movement of unsecured objects indoors. An intensity of 2 was recorded in Hualien.
TRAVEL
HK airline bids for Taoyuan
Hong Kong-based budget carrier Greater Bay Airlines has submitted plans to start a route to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport starting Dec. 1, the Civil Aeronautics Administration said on Sunday. Although the authority said it has not received a schedule from the carrier, the airline said it is planning one round-trip flight five days a week, including weekends. Should its plan be approved, Greater Bay Airlines would become the fourth Hong Kong carrier serving the route, after Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong Airlines and HK Express. Greater Bay Airlines, which started passenger services to Bangkok in July, has leased three Boeing 737-800s and plans to add two more aircraft before summer. It has applied to fly 104 international routes, and is in talks with Airbus SE and Boeing Co to acquire next-generation aircraft to aid its expansion with a “sizeable order” as early as possible, CEO Stanley Hui (許漢忠) told Bloomberg News.
POLITICS
DPP rallies for candidates
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has scheduled a campaign rally for its northern city mayoral candidates on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei on Saturday. The DPP seeks to drum up support for Taipei mayoral candidate Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) and New Taipei mayoral candidate Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍). The party said in a video on Facebook that President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who is also the party chairperson, would like DPP supporters to rally at the boulevard to show support for the candidates. The party said that high support for the DPP in the Nov. 26 elections would demonstrate approval of the DPP’s governance path, and also show the world that locals support the direction Taiwan is taking internationally.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
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