DEFENSE
Budget for backbone network
The Ministry of National Defense (MND) has earmarked about NT$4.9 billion (US$153.5 million) to acquire backbone subnetworks for faster and more stable battlefield data transmission. The budget request, pending legislative review, would fund 213 backbone subnetworks, 179 microwave transmission subsystems, power generators and fiber channels to facilitate data transmission to command centers and weapons launch platforms across different services of the armed forces, according to the spending plan delivered to the legislature by the ministry on Friday last week. The planned systems are expected to boost the survivability of critical military command and control systems during wartime by establishing a fiber optic communication system and a high-capacity data transmission network across the nation. They are also expected to ensure uninterrupted data transmissions between command and control centers, harbors, airports, and joint intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems, the ministry said. For fiscal year 2025, about NT$59 million has been earmarked for the design and planning of the systems and on-site evaluations. The project would take place from next year to 2030, the plans show.
DIPLOMACY
Garafil to head MECO
Cheloy Garafil, a former press secretary to Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., is to be the new representative to Taiwan, a Philippine official said on Thursday. Garafil is to head the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO), Marcos’ newly appointed press secretary Cesar Chavez told reporters in Manila without giving a specific date. MECO, which serves as the Philippines’ de facto embassy in Taiwan in the absence of diplomatic ties, is currently headed by Silvestre Hernando Bello III, who has held the post since July 2022. In June 2022, Garafil was appointed as head of the Philippines’ Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board. She also worked as a prosecutor at the Department of Justice during the administration of former Philippine president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Philippine media reports said. Prior to her government jobs, Garafil worked as a reporter for the Malaya newspaper and also as a stringer for Taiwan’s Central News Agency. The announcement of her appointment to the MECO post was made during Chavez’s swearing in as the new press secretary.
CROSS-STRAIT
SEF urges more exchanges
Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Acting Chairman Rock Hsu (許勝雄) on Thursday called for greater exchanges among Taiwan, China, Hong Kong and Macau businesses to boost enterprises’ competitiveness. “Increased cooperation and integration among enterprises across the Strait is pivotal to help enhance Taiwanese companies’ competitive edge and to lay a sound foundation for them to expand internationally,” Hsu told reporters before the opening of the 10th Cross-Strait, Hong Kong and Macau Forum on Economic and Trade in Taipei. Hsu said the SEF is also hopeful that Taiwan and China can reopen tourism and educational exchanges, as limiting them creates misgivings. Opening up to tourists would undoubtedly increase mutual understanding and interactions, he said, describing it as a “positive development.” The annual Cross-Strait, Hong Kong and Macau Forum on Economic and Trade has been held by rotating hosts since 2012. It was held in Suzhou last year.
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
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