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.
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
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