Taipei to set up ‘air quality management zones’NEW STANDARDS: The policy should slash PM2.5 by 27.3 tonnes per year, down 4.5 percent from current levels, the Taipei Department of Environmental Protection saidBy Tsai Ssu-pei and Dennis Xie / Staff reporter, with staff writerTaipei is to designate three transportation hubs and six tourist hotspots as “Phase One Air Quality Management Zones,” with the types of vehicles allowed to enter them restricted, the Taipei Department of Environmental Protection said in a news release yesterday. Vehicle owners and drivers failing to meet emission standards in those zones would be subject to fines from next year, the agency added. Photo: Kuo An-chia, Taipei TimesScooters failing to undergo the required regular inspections would also lose access to the zones, the agency added. The air quality management zones would be Taipei City Hall Bus Station, Taipei Bus Station and Nangang Bus Station, as well as Yangmingshan National Park, the National Palace Museum, Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, the National Revolutionary Martyrs’ Shrine and Taipei 101, it said. Small diesel vehicles would not be included in the regulations, she said, citing lower emissions and the difficulty of enforcement, as inspectors cannot distinguish diesel vehicles from gasoline vehicles.

Nominee Wu questioned on ‘consensus’PRO-UNIFICATION? The Legislative Yuan has been reviewing the Presidential Office’s proposed nominees for the Examination Yuan, including Wu, 68, a former Overseas Community Affairs Council minister. Examination Yuan nominee Wu Hsin-hsing attends a review meeting at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday. The KMT itself appears to be split over the “1992 consensus,” which is widely seen as the party’s lynchpin for cross-strait affairs. Both the ruling and opposition parties should consider a term that could replace the “1992 consensus” while remaining palatable to Beijing, former legislative speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) said.

Taiwan and the EU’s ‘safe list’By Ian Inkster 音雅恩An outrageous dismissal of the exemplary Taiwanese fight against COVID-19 has been perpetrated by the EU. There are 14 nations on the list that have been chosen as safe countries of origin and safe countries of destination for the EU. Yet, as I have noted above, South Korea with its 63 new cases and its 254 cases per million appears within the EU list of safe nations. However, the EU list of safe nations includes Rwanda at 100, Algeria at 89, Georgia at 74 and Uruguay at 54. Second, Taiwan is a thorn in the side of China, but there is no reason to argue that China could possibly object to the inclusion of Taiwan in the EU’s “safe list.” China has so many other things aimed at Taiwan.

MOJ, tech firms to hold talks on Chinese spyingINDUSTRIAL ESPIONAGE: The minister of justice warned that Chinese companies have been luring Taiwanese talent with high salaries to steal trade secretsBy Jason Pan / Staff reporterThe Ministry of Justice is to hold a meeting today with representatives of tech firms at the Hsinchu Science Park to counteract Beijing’s efforts to recruit industrial spies and steal technological know-how. Meetings with firms at other science parks in central and southern Taiwan are to be held in the coming weeks, it added. Asked for a comment, the Hsinchu Science Park Administration yesterday said that the forum is a regular activity. Meanwhile, lawmakers also urged the government to boost information security protection measures. Information security is not a show you put on for others, he said, urging the institute to check for any information security loopholes by working with the National Security Bureau, the military’s General Staff for Communication, Electronics and Information, and the Executive Yuan’s National Information and Communication Security Taskforce.

Largan in the first quarter made NT$6.72 billion in net profit, the company said. The premises of Largan Precision Co is pictured in Taichung yesterday. Gross margin fell slightly to 68.63 percent, compared with 69.8 percent in the first quarter, the company’s financial statement showed. Largan last month posted monthly revenue growth of 6.98 percent to NT$4.14 billion, ending two straight months of declines. Largan would keep pace with the research and development of new products, “but it is up to the clients whether they get designed” into new products, Lin said.

The pair made the descent in a submersible named Limiting Factor, a US$37 million two-seater commissioned by Vescovo from Triton Submarines. While Vescovo reportedly has opened some dive slots for paying customers, Lin said his descent was sponsored by Vescovo. “Because he is an expert in deep ocean acoustics, measurement, and tracking, Dr Lin’s involvement in the expedition was important in advancing further exploration and understanding of how sound waves propagate in the deepest parts of the ocean,” Caladan Oceanic said in a press release. He said that he has benefited from decades-long Taiwan-US collaboration in ocean research and now he serves as a bridge to sustain the ties from his vantage point at one of the world’s top ocean research institutions. A strong nation is bolstered by its sea power, which could be enhanced by boosting ocean research capacity, he added.

TPP and NPP lawmakers urge abolition of Control Yuan and Examination YuanBy Jason Pan / Staff reporterThe Control Yuan and Examination Yuan should be abolished as their seats are filled with “fat-cat patronage appointments” for well-paying and cushy jobs, while some members have accepted teaching positions in China, raising national security concerns, Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) and New Power Party (NPP) lawmakers said yesterday. Taiwan People’s Party lawmakers yesterday hold banners in the main chamber of the Legislative Yuan in Taipei calling for abolition of the Control Yuan and Examination Yuan. The TPP held a brief protest inside and outside the main legislative chamber, during which TPP caucus whip Lai Hsiang-ling (賴香伶) raised the issue of some Examination Yuan members accepting outside work, including lecturing posts in China. “Some Examination Yuan members have accepted visiting professor or guest lecturer posts at universities in China. “The questionnaire is not so tough... Our society has many impoverished people, but Examination Yuan members enjoy very high salaries and good perks, all paid for by the taxpayers.

The investigation found that KMT Legislator Hsieh Yi-fong’s (謝衣鳳) father, Hsieh Hhsin-lung (謝新隆), and sister, Hsieh Pei-ying (謝佩穎), held a 25.89 percent stake in Changhua County’s SD TV (三大有線電視) through a legal entity from Jan. 25, 2010, to April 7 of this year. Then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative candidate Hsieh Yi-fong, second right, holds a basket of pineapples during a campaign event in Chuanghua County on Dec. 1 last year. “Mr Hsieh Hsin-lung and Ms Hsieh Pei-yin have been SD TV board members since Jan. 26, 2005. Hsieh Hsin-lung and Hsieh Pei-yin had been given a chance to explain their actions, it said. As both had reduced their indirect shareholding in SD TV to 0.63 percent by April 8, the NCC ruled that the cable system be fined just NT$1.6 million for receiving invested funds from people having familial relationships with politicians.

Safety always comes first for Dome complex: KoNEWS CONFERENCE: Several safety improvements have been made to the design, the most important of which was reducing crowd capacity, Ko Wen-je saidBy Lee I-chia / Staff reporterThe Taipei City Government would make sure the Taipei Dome is as safe as it can be, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) promised yesterday as he announced that the capacity of the Dome complex would be capped at 59,833 people for the first three years of its operation. Ko held a news conference yesterday morning to outline the public safety standards and performance reviews for the Dome project ahead of the city issuing a new construction permit for the project next week. The Taipei City Construction Management Office approved Farglory Group’s new construction permit proposal on June 22, signaling that work might resume on the project after a five-year suspension. Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je answers reporters’ questions yesterday at a news conference about the Taipei Dome project. It also announced seven public safety standards for the project that same year.

Legislators quiz nominee HuangBy Sean Lin / Staff reporterFormer minister of education Huang Jong-tsun (黃榮村) yesterday told lawmakers that he would support any effort to move the nation toward a sounder constitutional system, including abolishing the Examination Yuan, if he were to be confirmed as its head. Huang, who was nominated by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to be Examination Yuan president, made the remark as the Legislative Yuan in Taipei reviewed his nomination. Former minister of education Huang Jong-tsun, who has been nominated to be president of the Examination Yuan, answers lawmakers’ questions at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday. If civil servants are familiar with the nation’s history, it would significantly benefit their jobs and the nation’s development, he said. Taiwanese history could also be included as part of the training program for newly hired civil servants before they are assigned their first jobs, he added.

FSC eases identity control rules for online insuranceBy Kao Shih-ching / Staff reporterThe Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) has eased the rules on consumer identity authentication for the online insurance business, enabling insurers to cooperate with non-insurance firms to speed up authentication. Under the previous rules, customers of non-insurance companies needed to pass the firms’ identity authentication protocols when logging on to their platforms or apps, and then had to pass insurers’ identity authentication protoclos to buy products, Shih said. The relaxed rules require people to pass only one identification control, which would save time and could boost their willingness to buy insurance policies, Shih added. Nan Shan Life Insurance Co (南山人壽) plans to partner with Gogoro to launch new usage-based insurance products, while other insurers would work with Chunghwa Post and H2 to market fire and earthquake insurance products, and health insurance for people with diabetes respectively, she added. If insurance firms want to cooperate with non-insurance firms on consumer identity authentication, they need to apply to the commission, as the authentication mechanism must be reliable, she added.

The survey asked what students would do if they discovered that information they themselves had shared contained mistakes. Adults and children present the findings of a media literacy survey conducted by the King Car Cultural and Educational Foundation in Taipei yesterday. The students were also asked to choose from a list up to three types of information they most often share. About 56 percent of students gave themselves a media literacy score of 80 or more out of 100, the survey showed. However, when asked to rate the media literacy of Taiwanese overall, only about 37 percent gave a score of 80 or above.

Government unwilling to vouch for own rulesForeign ARC/APRC holders are still asking why they won’t be getting stimulus vouchersBy Steven Crook / Contributing reporterTobie Openshaw is confident that Taiwan’s government has good reasons for not including him in the Triple Stimulus Voucher Program, which launched at the beginning of this month. “Surely we deserve a small thank you, just like Taiwan citizens. Premier Su Tseng-chang holds up two mock copies of the Triple Stimulus Vouchers, which come in denominations of NT$200 and NT$500. Whether it’s shared by the officials who crafted the Triple Stimulus Voucher Program is hard to say, because they’ve shown little willingness to discuss their reasoning. “There’s no logical reason not to include an entire subset of taxpayers if the goal is a broad economic stimulus.

Ministry lauds Canada’s UBC for ‘Taiwan’ referenceBy Lin Chia-nan / Staff reporter, with ReutersThe Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday commended the University of British Columbia (UBC) for “resuming its academic autonomy,” after the school said it would refer to the nation as “Taiwan,” instead of as “Taiwan (Province of China)” as it had done in an annual report. In the report’s 2018-2019 edition, the school had referred to the nation as “Taiwan” without any parenthesized note. “Moving forward, UBC will only refer to Taiwan without any additional descriptors in future reports,” Heinrich said. The ministry is glad to see the university resume its academic neutrality and autonomy, ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) told a news briefing in Taipei. The ministry lauded the university for understanding the essence of the problem and its willingness to correct the inappropriate appellation, she added.

University seeks to encourage Chinese medicine for animalsBy Wu Po-hsuan and Dennis Xie / Staff reporter, with staff writerNational Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) has established a team of cross-disciplinary academics to promote incorporating Chinese herbal medicine into pet food, as many ingredients have been proven to benefit the health of animals. Research has shown that diets involving certain medicinal herbs benefit animals’ health, Lee said, adding that using these herbs as health supplements can reduce the animals’ chances of developing illnesses at a later age, saving their owners the cost of treatment using Western medicine. Veterinarian Huang Mei-jung (黃美蓉), an executive officer at a pet food company, said that all Chinese herbal medicine would be tested on animals before being introduced to the market. This means that Chinese medicinal herbs that enter the market are safe for animals to consume, if given in proper amounts, Huang added. A woman surnamed Chen (陳), who owns a nine-year-old dachshund, said that feeding her dog snacks made of Chinese medicinal herbs for one month greatly enhanced the animal’s physical strength and energy levels.