DIPLOMACY
Ma departs for summit
Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday departed for Singapore to attend the Asia Future Summit being held today and tomorrow, his office said. Ma was invited by the Chinese-language Lianhe Zaobao newspaper to speak at the summit, which is being organized for the first time by the Straits Times and the Business Times to mark the contribution of former Singaporean prime minister Lee Kuan Yew (李光耀) to promoting peace across the Taiwan Strait, the statement said. During the visit, Ma is also to lead a delegation of 30 Taiwanese students from the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation’s Dajiu Academy to visit Singapore’s public housing units, port operation control centers and the Singapore City Gallery, it said.
DIPLOMACY
Paris deputy mayor to visit
Paris Deputy Mayor Jean-Luc Romero-Michel on Monday announced a plan to visit Taiwan and attend the LGBT Pride parade at the end of this month. In addition to making the announcement on X after meeting with Representative to France Francois Wu (吳志中) on Monday, Romero-Michel said: “I reaffirmed my support against pressure from China.” Taiwan, the first nation in the Asia-Pacific region to legalize same-sex marriage, is to hold the parade on Oct. 28. “I will be there,” Romero-Michel said. As deputy mayor, Romero-Michel is in charge of human rights affairs, and is at the forefront of supporting democracy and freedom. He has attended many demonstrations in Paris in support of the rights of Uighurs and Tibetans. He has also on several occasions publicly supported Taiwan and condemned China’s intimidation, including at the centenary celebration of the International Federation for Human Rights in October last year.
DIPLOMACY
St Lucia trip a success
Forty “youth ambassadors” have concluded a 10-day-trip to St Lucia to enhance bilateral exchanges and people-to-people ties with the Caribbean ally, said Constance Wang (王雪虹), head of the Department of NGO International Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Taiwanese aged 18 to 35 were in St Lucia from Sept. 2 to 11. Wang said that the ministry recruited people who have won cooking contests to be part of the delegation for the first time. Having four skilled young Taiwanese chefs in St Lucia was a success, she said, adding that they had planned to hold one baking workshop, but eventually held two due to strong demand. The delegation also hosted “Taiwan Cultural Camps” at four schools and met with local political leaders.
HEALTH
Mangosteens seized
Mangosteens imported from Thailand were stopped at the border for the second consecutive week because they contained excessive amounts of an insecticide, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. The mangosteens imported by Greather Fruit Trading Co contained 0.05mg/kg of the insecticide cypermethrin, well above the maximum permissible limit of 0.01mg/kg, the FDA said, adding that the 1,704kg batch would be destroyed or returned to its country of origin. Mangosteens imported by the same company were also blocked at the border last week because they contained excessive levels of cadmium. The FDA’s weekly report on intercepted imports showed that 15 other goods, including Vietnamese durians, Japanese peaches and pears, and parsley from the Netherlands, were also either destroyed or returned to their country of origin.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
A new board game set against the backdrop of armed conflict around Taiwan is to be released next month, amid renewed threats from Beijing, inviting players to participate in an imaginary Chinese invasion 20 years from now. China has ramped up military activity close to Taiwan in the past few years, including massing naval forces around the nation. The game, titled 2045, tasks players with navigating the troubles of war using colorful action cards and role-playing as characters involved in operations 10 days before a fictional Chinese invasion of Taiwan. That includes members of the armed forces, Chinese sleeper agents and pro-China politicians
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