POLITICS
Belgian delegation arrives
A group of eight Belgian lawmakers has arrived in Taiwan for a six-day trip during which they are to meet with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and discuss future cooperation on issues including human rights and supply chain resilience, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. The delegation is led by Els Van Hoof of the Christian Democratic and Flemish party, who chairs the Chamber of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee and the Belgium-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Group. Van Hoof is also a cochair of the international Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China. The delegation also includes Georges Dallemagne, who is a member of the Belgian parliament’s Chamber of Representatives, the ministry said in a press release. The delegates are also to meet with private enterprises and research institutes to discuss future collaboration on issues including gender equality, human rights, environmental protection and supply chain resilience, it added. Both Van Hoof and Dallemagne are known for their Taiwan-friendly stance, the ministry said. In July 2020, they initiated a motion that urged the Belgian government to support Taiwan’s participation in international bodies.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs via CNA
CRIME
Boy detained after threat
An 18-year-old suspect has been detained for questioning after he allegedly left a message threatening to commit a “massacre” at the Taipei Municipal Heping High School, the Taipei Police Department said on Saturday. The suspect is a high-school student who lives in Taipei with his parents, the department said, adding he was arrested at his home in the morning. He was released in the custody of his parents after being questioned by police and prosecutors. The case is now in the hands of prosecutors, who are investigating the teenager for potentially violating the Criminal Code by engaging in public intimidation. The threatening message was left in an Instagram account linked to the Taipei high school last week. Its author warned students there not to show up for class today, as there would be a massacre near the school’s entrance at noon. The alarming message has since been removed, but it still caused concern and caught the attention of local authorities. On Saturday, police said the student was believed to have threatened the school out of anxiety.
ARTS
Filmmaker wins award
Taiwanese filmmaker Hsiao Mei-ling (蕭美玲) has won the Directors Guild of Japan Award for her documentary Parallel World (平行世界) at the biennial Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival (YIDFF). The award ceremony was held on Wednesday in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan, a National Taipei University of Education news release said on Saturday. Hsiao, who teaches at the university’s Department of Arts and Design, is also known for Somewhere Over the Cloud (雲的那端), a documentary that won a special mention in the New Asian Currents Awards category at the YIDFF in 2007. In her acceptance speech, Hsiao said she was happy that her dream of winning another award at the festival had finally come to fruition. Parallel World, which took 12 years to make, chronicles the special bond between Hsiao and her daughter, Elodie, who has Asperger’s syndrome. The film shows how Hsiao accompanies her daughter in the process of self-seeking, self-recognition and finding a way out. The YIDFF was first held in 1989 and recognizes achievements in documentary filmmaking, as well as aiming to promote and popularize the genre. The event this year was held from Oct. 5 to Thursday last week.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
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