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.
A fugitive in a suspected cosmetic surgery fraud case today returned to Taiwan from Canada, after being wanted for six years. Internet celebrity Su Chen-tuan (蘇陳端), known as Lady Nai Nai (貴婦奈奈), and her former boyfriend, plastic surgeon Paul Huang (黃博健), allegedly defrauded clients and friends of about NT$1 billion (US$30.66 million). Su was put on a wanted list in 2019 when she lived in Toronto, Canada, after failing to respond to subpoenas and arrest warrants from the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office. Su arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 5am today on an EVA Air flight accompanied by a
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
Restarting the No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant would take up to 18 months, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said today. Kuo was answering questions during a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Economics Committee, where legislators are considering amendments to the Renewable Energy Development Act (再生能源發展條) amid concerns about the consequences of the Pingtung County reactor’s decommissioning scheduled for May 17. Its decommissioning is to mark the end of Taiwan’s nuclear power production. However, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers have proposed an amendment to the Nuclear Reactor Facilities Regulation Act (核子反應器設施管制法) that would extend the life of existing
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
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