Portal:Republic of China/Republic of China news/Archives

2006

July

July 15, 2006 (S)

• Typhoon Bilis leaves behind mudslides, eight damaged roads, one damaged railway, and at least NT$ 82.49 million in damages to agricultural crops in its wake [1].

• Academia Sinica's Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics announces the first observation of a forming planet in the Auriga constellation. The observation was made by the Submillimeter Array in Mauna Kea in Hawaii [2].

July 14, 2006 (F)

• The National Palace Museum has lent duplicate portraits of Genghis Khan and his grandson Khubilai Khan to Mongolia which is celebrating the 800th anniversary of his enthronement. Genghis Khan conquered many lands and united them under the largest contiguous empire in world history. His grandson, Khubilai established the Yuan dynasty in China and was its first emperor [3].

• The Coast Guard Administration and police in Pingtung County has seized 118 firearms including 25 pistols, 25 shotguns, 64 rifles, and 18,500 bullets all purchased from the Philippines. It is believed that the Four Seas Gang purchased the firearms and tried to smuggle them into Taiwan during Typhoon Bilis for use against a rival gang, the Bamboo Union [4].

• The Festival of Austronesian and Formosa Indigenous Cultures begins today until the end of the month at the Taitung Municipal Forest Park. There will be performances by local tribes and eleven ethnic groups from Fiji, Malaysia, New Zealand, Palau, and the Philippines. The annual "Makapahay Festival" will be held by the four indigenous tribes of Amis, Paiwan, Puyuma, and Rukai [5].

• An opening ceremony was held for the Taiwan World Trade Center in Vancouver, Canada, the 44th of its kind by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) [6].

July 13, 2006 (Th)

• Pro-Taiwanese parliamentarians in Japan express concern over Kuomintang chairman Ma Ying-jeou's anti-Japanese stance. Ma, had criticized Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichirō's visits to Yasukuni shrine; his KMT party had blocked approval of arms procurement which are vital to the defence of Taiwan; and for his stance on Senkaku/Diaoyutai islands [7].

• Richard Fisher and Daryl Kimball, two think tank experts at a panel discussion hosted by the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research have expressed that the balance of power has tipped in favor of Beijing which has over 800 missiles aimed at Taiwan. They agree that even the deployment of AEGIS-equipped destroyers would not be enough to defend Taiwan against a Chinese missile attack. They have proposed to provide the ROC with energy-directed weapons or help them develop indigenous cruise and ballistic missiles. The People's Republic of China's growing missile force also poses a threat to Japan and US military bases in the region [8].

July 11, 2006 (Tu)

• President Chen Shui-bian's son-in-law Chao Chien-ming is released from prison after paying a NT$ 10 million bail. He has been charged with insider trading [9].

• Kuomintang chairman and Taipei mayor Ma Ying-jeou on his six-day trip to Japan has criticized Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichirō's visits to the Yasukuni shrine. Ma, who is seen as the forerunner in the 2008 presidential elections, has also stated that Taiwan should resist reunification with China until the PRC government shows respect for democracy and human rights [10].

July 10, 2006 (M)

• Beijing-based China Disabled People's Performing Art Troupe (中國殘疾人藝術團) make their first official performance in Taiwan at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall. The troupe hopes to share their love and passion for life despite their disabilities through their performance of the "Thousand-Hand Bodhisattva" (千手觀音) (Watch video: [11]) [12].

July 7, 2006 (F)

• State-owned Chinese Petroleum Corporation has raised its oil prices for the third time this year as a result of the increase in crude oil procurement costs and the increasing international crude oil prices which had at one point reached US$ 75 per barrel. The company expects to suffer a total loss of NT$ 50 billion (US$ 1.53 billion) for the 2006 fiscal year. [13].

• Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Michel Lu confirmed that the ROC has donated NT$ 50 million in aid to the Dominican Republic amid tensions that the country was considering switching diplomacy to the People's Republic of China [14]

• Mirriam Chinema, an exchange military cadet from Malawi has become the first foreign female military officer to graduate from the ROC Military Academy after completing a four-year training and study course [15].

July 6, 2006 (Th)

• The ROC government sends independence day greetings to Malawi which gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1964. Malawi is one of the ROC's oldest allies having established diplomatic relations for 40 years [16].

• The Far Eastern Electronics Toll Collection (遠通電收) has urged motorists using the Electronic toll collection lanes on the freeway networks to remove the value-stored cards from their on-board units (OBU) after exiting the freeways. The call was made after it received reports from motorists that the cards became warped or got stuck in the OBU when left operating in the hot weather in Taiwan [17].

• President Chen Shui-bian has expressed his hopes for a national soccer team to compete in the 2018 FIFA World Cup and proposed the government select twenty children below the age of 10 to be trained at the best soccer schools in Brazil with all expenses paid. Some experts are skeptical as he had made a similar appeal four years ago [18].

• The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has expelled Taipei city councilmen Lo Tsung-sheng (羅宗勝) and Hsu Fu-nan (許富男)from the party in the latest discliplinary move [19].

• Twenty-two new academicians have been elected to the nation's foremost institution, the Academia Sinica. The number of newly elected academicians was also the smallest in the institution's 78-year history [20]

• The Consumers' Foundation has warned Taipei residents to exert caution when purchasing fresh fruit juice after 27 of 30 samples were found to exceed acceptable levels of germ count. Two contained E. Coli and eight contained staphylococcus aureus. Consumers are advised to keep fresh fruit juice refrigerated below five degrees Celsius and avoid consuming fresh fruit juice that has been left at room temperature for more than two hours [21].

July 5, 2006 (W)

• Military analyst Andrew Yang says the ROC is monitoring American reaction to the North Korean missile tests to get an idea of how Washington would handle a future missile crisis across the Taiwan Strait. The People's Republic of China currently has over 700 missiles aimed at the island of Taiwan [22].

July 4, 2006 (Tu)

• The ROC government has blocked the state-owned Chinese Petroleum Corporation from raising fuel prices after it posted losses of as much as NT$ 2 billion (US$ 62 million) a month on gas prices [23].

• The Department of Health has issued a dengue fever alert for southern Taiwan. [24]

• Foreign minister James Huang (黃志芳) embarks on a six-nation tour to Africa to meet with ROC allies Gambia, Malawi, São Tomé and Príncipe, Burkina Faso, Chad, and Swaziland [25].

• Customs officers bust the largest Ivory smuggling case in ROC history seizing over 350 pieces of ivory worth more than NT$ 100 million and weighing a total of over two tons. The ivory shipment was found in two containers from Tanzania bound for the Philippines located at a wharf in Kaohsiung Harbor[26].

• The Children's Bureau (CB) under the Ministry of the Interior and the Child Welfare League Foundation (CWLF) has set up the Child and Juvenile Adoption Information Center (CJAIC) at Sindian (Xindian) in Taipei County. The new service will allow adopted children to gain access to information on their biological parents [27].

• Academia Sinica president Lee Yuan Tseh in a speech criticized the government's policies on giving incentives to increase the sharply declining population to support the aging society. He states that Taiwan's population density at 600 people per km² was the second highest in the world and has suggested raising the retirement age to combat the problem instead [28].

• A survey conducted by Importers and Exporters Association of Taipei found that 55 percent of exporters were dissatisfied with the ROC's overall foreign trade climate. Around 90 percent of domestic importers and exporters cited price hikes in raw materials and oil prices as hindering their business [29].

July 3, 2006 (M)

• Taipei is to host its first Taiwan International Motorcycle Industry Show between October 27-29 at the Taiwan World Trade Center. [30]

June

June 30, 2006 (F)

• Taiwan's oldest night market, the Chien-Cheng Circle is to close on Sunday (July 2) after nearly 100 years of operation. [31]

• The PRC has voiced strong opposition to the US House of Representatives approval of a bill which would lift a decades-old ban on high-level governmental contacts with the ROC. The bill requires approval from the US Senate to be passed as legislation. [32]

June 29, 2006 (Th)

• A nationwide survey conducted by the magazine Global Views Monthly found that Japan (47.5%), United States (40.3%) and the PRC (15.8%) were ranked at the top out of 166 nations in terms of nations that respondents admired the most. [33]

• President Chen Shui-bian renews his sovereignty pledge and has stated he will not allow Taiwan to become the second Hong Kong during the remainder of his presidential term. [34]

• Mayor of Irvine (California) Beth Krom apologizes after staff signed a sister city pact in late May with Xuhui District (Shanghai) which formally disavows existence of the ROC amongst other promises. [35]

• According to a survey of 34 nations conducted by the International Social Survey Programme, the ROC ranked near the bottom at 29th place in terms of national pride. [36]

• June 27, 2006: The legislative committee has decided to send a delegation to the United States next month as part of a review of government policy of reopening its market to US beef imports after doubts were raised due to the discovery of bone fragments in a shipment last April. [37]

• June 27, 2006: Taipei is the first city in the world to roll out a city-wide Wi-Fi network called Wi-fly covering 90% of the city with 4,000 hot spots serving a city population of 2.6 million. [38]

• June 27, 2006: President Chen Shui-bian survives a parliamentary attempt to oust him from office. [39]

• June 16, 2006: The 12.9 km Hsuehshan Tunnel officially opens after 15 years of construction [40].

• June 14, 2006: The Cabinet approves a new weapons procurement budget of NT$ 6.3 billion (US$ 197 million) [41].

• June 14, 2006: ROC officials express concern that the draft Taroko self-government law, the first aborigine self-rule plan could conflict with the constitution [42].

• June 14, 2006: The newly completed 54.3 km Peiyi (Taipei-Ilan) Freeway is officially named the Chiang Wei-shui Memorial Freeway [43].

• June 14, 2006: The PRC and ROC have agreed to launch more chartered flights across the Taiwan Strait. Flights from Taipei and Kaohsiung will service Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Xiamen in mainland China.

• June 13, 2006: The Legislative Yuan decides to hold a recall hearing against President Chen Shui-bian [44].

May

• May 24, 2006: President Chen Shui-bian's son in law, Chao Chien-ming is arrested by Taipei police on charges of insider stock trading and embezzlement. More charges are expected soon. This is yet another set back for the Chen Shui-bian administration. The public is enraged by these latest scandals.

April

• April 15, 2006: FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC, a joint US-Republic of China space program to study meteorology, climatology, the ionosphere and space weather was successfully launched from the Vandenberg Launch Complex in California, United States.

2005

October

• October 22, 2005: The Republic of China to violate Tamiflu patent due to vaccine shortage: The shortage of the antiviral, Tamiflu, has prompted the ROC to begin work on copying the antiviral without the consent of its manufacturer and patent holder, the Swiss pharmaceutical company Hoffmann-La Roche. Though officials have requested permission from Roche, they are not waiting on a response to begin work, citing the need to protect the public.(Wikinews)

September

• September 26, 2006: Japan exempts visa requirements for residents in Taiwan visiting Japan for a period of up to 90 days [45].

April

• April 26, 2005: 2005 Kuomintang visits to Mainland: A 70-member delegation led by Kuomintang chairman Lien Chan left Taipei for Nanjing via Hong Kong, launching Lien Chan's 8-day Taiwan Strait peace tour, also the first official visit by the highest leader of Kuomintang to Mainland China in 60 years. (BBC)

2004

December

• December 15, 2004: Former First Lady Chiang Fang-liang passes away aged 88, in Taipei Veterans Hospital from pulmonary and cardiac failure.

2003

June

• June 12, 2003: Minister of Foreign Affairs, Eugene Chien (簡又新) announces that new R.O.C. passports to be issued from September 1 will include the word "Taiwan" printed in Roman letters on the cover [46].