HONG KONG
Chief forced to resign
The head of a Hong Kong sports association resigned yesterday after making a comment that the government said contravened the “one China” principle by implying Taiwanese independence. Josephine Ip (葉永玉), chairperson of the Hong Kong, China Weightlifting and Powerlifting Association, was criticized this month after giving a speech that listed “Chinese Taipei” among the “countries” taking part in a tournament in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong government on May 11 said that Ip’s speech was “absolutely unacceptable” and gave rise to a “suspected violation of the ‘one China’ principle,” adding that local sports officials would investigate. The association yesterday said that Ip has stepped down “due to personal reasons.” The body earlier apologized for the “serious oversight” and said Ip bungled the speech which had meant to refer to Taiwan as a “region.” Critics such as pro-Beijing politician Adrian Ho (何敬康) cast doubt on the explanation, pointing to a similar comment Ip made in March that referred to Hong Kong as “a relatively small country.” Last year, Hong Kong’s sports associations were told to include “China” in their official names or risk having funding pulled.
CRIME
Chris Wang jailed
Actor Chris Wang (宥勝) was sentenced to eight months in jail by the Taipei District Court yesterday for assaulting a woman. The court said that Wang, 41, was a well-known entertainer who attracted considerable media attention at the time of the incident in 2016 and that he had a superior-subordinate relationship with the woman. It added that Wang exploited the woman’s trust and his violent actions severely infringed upon her sexual autonomy and bodily integrity. The court said that Wang contacted the victim and witnesses of the case before the cross-examination while court proceedings were still ongoing, showing a lack of sincere remorse. This led to the court deciding to impose an eight-month jail sentence on Wang. The ruling can be appealed. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office indicted Wang in November last year.
TECHNOLOGY
Taiwan LLM to be expanded
Taiwan’s self-built large language model, Trustworthy AI Dialogue Engine (TAIDE), is to have its application fields further expanded to accelerate improvements in industry productivity and public sector efficiency, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said on Thursday. Cabinet spokesperson Chen Shi-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference that as an indispensable partner in the global semiconductor supply chain, Taiwan must keep up with artificial intelligence (AI) developments. TAIDE was initiated by the National Science and Technology Council in April last year to create a foundational model for a traditional Chinese generative AI dialogue engine specifically for Taiwan. According to a council report on TAIDE presented during a Cabinet meeting, a TAIDE model based on Meta’s Llama 2 (Large Language Model Meta AI) model (TAIDE-LX-7B) was released for commercial use on April 15, and another version for research only (TAIDE-LX-13B) has also been released. Both models have excelled in a variety of tasks, such as English to Chinese-language translations, with results comparable to Open AI’s ChatGPT 3.5, the council said. It added that the TAIDE team is working with industries and academia to develop diversified applications, including agricultural knowledge searches and a Hoklo-English AI chatbot for elementary and junior-high schools.
‘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 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as
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