POLITICS
Putin backs China’s claims
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday described China as Moscow’s ally and threw his weight behind Beijing’s claims over Taiwan. The two countries have not declared a formal military alliance, but Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) signed a “no limits” partnership deal in 2022, less than three weeks before Putin sent his troops into Ukraine. In May this year they agreed to deepen what they called their “comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation” for a new era. “We do not believe that China is pursuing an aggressive policy in the region,” Putin said at the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi, Russia. He suggested that Taiwan was trying to stir up a Ukraine-style crisis in Asia to attract outside support. “A lot is going on around Taiwan. Everyone formally acknowledges, yes, Taiwan is part of China. But in reality? In reality, it is acting in a completely different direction. Provoking the situation toward escalation,” Putin said. “We do support China. And because of this, we believe that [China] is conducting a completely reasonable policy. And also because it is our ally. We have a very large trade turnover, we cooperate in the security sector.”
CRIME
Child molester deported
The National Immigration Agency yesterday said that an American convicted of child molestation in the US has been deported for working illegally in Taiwan. The man, Levi Forrest Wallace, was found to have worked as a part-time cleaner in a hotel, despite entering Taiwan on a tourist visa on Oct. 2, the agency said in a statement. This breach of his visa terms contravened Article 18 of the Immigration Act (入出國及移民法), resulting in the man being deported, it said. Under Article 18, immigration authorities can also bar foreign nationals from entering or remaining in Taiwan if they have a criminal record either locally or internationally, or if they are deemed a potential threat to public security. The man was given a two-year suspended sentence in 2001 for molesting a minor in the US, the agency said. He was deported yesterday morning, it said, adding that those who illegally employed the man had been reported to the authorities.
CRIME
18 face drug charges
The Keelung District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted 18 people on suspicion of smuggling 891.86kg of ketamine into Taiwan. The suspects were charged with contravening the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act (毒品危害防制條例) and the Smuggling Penalty Act (懲治走私條例), it said in a news release. The office said that upon receiving tip-offs about a plan to smuggle drugs into the nation via the northern coast, it established a task force comprising coast guard officers and police to investigate and monitor suspicious people and locations. On July 8, the task force found a truck carrying 35 sacks of ketamine, a category 3 narcotic, in New Taipei City’s Wanli District (萬里). The driver, people conducting the transport and porters were arrested at the scene, and 891.85kg of ketamine with a purity of 83.9 percent was seized, the news release said. The task force later arrested a man surnamed Lai (賴), who steered a fishing boat that smuggled the narcotics to Yilan County’s Dongao Fishing Harbor, it said. The task force eventually traced down the leader of the smuggling operation, a man surnamed Tsao (曹), it said. The 18 people have since been held incommunicado.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
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