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 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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