CRIME
Two charged with spying
Two men accused of accepting money from Chinese state security services in exchange for setting up an espionage ring in Taiwan were yesterday indicted on corruption and national security charges, the Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office said. Businessman Hu Chi-yao (胡繼堯) and former army staff sergeant Chen Min-cheng (陳敏政), who retired in 2018, worked in concert with members of China’s People’s Armed Police to recruit members of the Taiwanese military to spy for Beijing, prosecutors said. In November 2019, Chen and Hu attempted to convince a major with the Penghu Defense Command surnamed Lin (林) to obtain classified military intelligence for China in exchange for money, prosecutors added. Lin refused and instead provided nonvital information, such as the military’s “physical examination standards,” which he downloaded from the Internet to get Chen and Hu off his back, they said. From September 2019 to April last year, Chen tried to lure a Taiwanese businessman working in Vietnam to work for China, but that attempt also failed, they added.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Japan delegation to visit
A delegation from Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), led by Diet member Norikazu Suzuki, is to arrive in Taiwan tomorrow for a four-day visit to meet with Taiwanese presidential candidates, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. Apart from Suzuki, who is the head of the LDP’s Youth Division, the group includes seven other members of the Diet, members of the Youth Division, as well as local representatives, the ministry said. The 65-member LDP delegation is scheduled to meet separately with all presidential nominees, as well as high-ranking government officials, it said. The group is also to visit National Taiwan University in Taipei and tourist attractions in Yilan, as well as pay a visit to former president Lee Teng-hui’s (李登輝) grave at a military cemetery in New Taipei City, it said. The group’s visit would allow for more exchanges and collaboration between young politicians in Taiwan and Japan, the ministry said. The LDP’s Youth Division has been an important window for bilateral exchanges between Taiwan and Japan while also nurturing future top Japanese leaders, it said.
SPORTS
Kouame gets ROC card
Soccer player Ange Samuel Kouame (安以恩), a naturalized Republic of China (ROC) citizen, promised to do his best if selected to play in Taiwan’s national team. Born in the Republic of Cote d’Ivoire, the 27-year-old on Monday received his ROC identification card, making him Taiwan’s second naturalized soccer player, the National Immigration Agency’s Tainan service center said in a statement yesterday. The statement quoted Kouame, who plays for the Tainan-based Taiwan Steel Group Football Club in the eight-team Taiwan Football Premier League, as saying that he would seize every opportunity to represent Taiwan in international competitions and perform to the best of his ability. Kouame joined the Taiwan Leopard Cat Football Club five years ago, winning the league’s Golden Boot award in the 2020 season with the team after scoring 20 goals, and was last year recognized as the semi-professional league’s player of the year. Kouame has also led his team to finish top of the league multiple times since starting his soccer career in Taiwan. He attributed his success to his Taiwanese wife, who gave birth to their first child in June.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
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