SOCIETY
Last ‘comfort woman’ dies
The last known Taiwanese “comfort woman” died on May 10 at the age of 92, the Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation said yesterday. The term refers to women who were forced to provide sexual services to Japanese soldiers during World War II. A private funeral was held by the woman’s family, the foundation said in a Facebook post, adding that it was attended by foundation chair Theresa Yeh (葉德蘭). The news of her passing was announced only yesterday, because the woman had asked for privacy before her passing, it said. Hopefully, the history of sexual slavery will not be forgotten with the passing of “comfort women” in Taiwan, the foundation said. It added that it would continue to demand that the Japanese government apologize and compensate such women and their family members for exploiting them during the war.
AVIATION
Unknown object halts flights
An unidentified flying object detected at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport resulted in flight disruption that affected more than 1,000 passengers yesterday morning, Taoyuan International Airport Co said. Flights were halted in and out of Taiwan’s main international gateway after a China Airlines pilot spotted the object, the company said. The closure lasted for about 40 minutes before air traffic resumed at about 10:10am, the company said, adding that seven flights were affected. Five flights approaching the airport for landing or preparing for takeoff — those belonging to Peach Aviation, EVA Airways, Starlux Arlines and AirAsia — were delayed, affecting 919 passengers. A Cathay Pacific and a Xiamen Airlines flight arriving from overseas carrying 280 passengers were diverted to Kaohsiung International Airport, the company said. Airport authorities were unable to identify the object, which was spotted only by the China Airlines pilot, but they do not rule out the possibility that it was a drone, the company said. Members of the public are encouraged to report suspected drone sightings to the airport at (03) 273-2043, it added.
SOCIETY
Choreographer dies at 97
Choreographer Liu Feng-shueh (劉鳳學), the first Taiwanese to hold a doctoral degree in dance, the first to promote Chinese modern dance and one of the first National Arts Award winners, died at home in Taipei on Wednesday. She was 97 years old. Born in China in 1925, Liu began learning ballet when she was a child. In the 1950s, she began to study, collect and document the dances of Taiwan’s indigenous communities. Neo-classical Dance Co, founded by Liu in 1976, lists on its Web site the “four small trees” Liu said she planted: her modern dance works, Confucian dance works, Tang dynasty court dance and music, and a study of indigenous dances. She won acclaim from the Congress of Research on Dance in the US as an outstanding academic of dance in 1977 and 2004, according to the National Culture and Arts Foundation, which named her one of the five winners of the first edition of the National Arts Awards in 1997. The New York-based Dance Notation Bureau in 2005 called Liu “an authority on the Chinese dance tradition” and “a pioneer of modern dance in Taiwan.” Her digitized dance notation that documents the styles she studied has been credited as a precious recording of the oriental dance history in Taiwan.
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
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
RSS