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By Yan ZHAO with Amber WANG in Taipei HUALIEN, Taiwan, April 4, 2024 (AFP) – Taiwanese rescuers worked Thursday to reach scores of people trapped in highway tunnels as engineers began a massive clear-up operation a day after the island’s biggest earthquake in a quarter of a century. Ten people were killed and nearly 1,100 injured in Wednesday’s magnitude-7.4 quake, but strict building regulations and widespread public disaster awareness appear to have staved off a […]
TAIPEI, April 3, 2024 (AFP) – The earthquake that hit Taiwan’s east on Wednesday morning was “the strongest in 25 years”, said the director of Taipei’s Seismology Centre. “The earthquake is close to land and it’s shallow. It’s felt all over Taiwan and offshore islands… it’s the strongest in 25 years since the (1999) earthquake,” Wu Chien-fu told reporters, referring to a September 1999 quake with 7.6-magnitude that killed 2,400 people. This is a developing […]
MANILA, April 3, 2024 (AFP) – The Philippines warned of “high tsunami waves” and called for the evacuation of coastal areas in the country’s north on Wednesday, lowering an earlier warning after a major quake struck neighbouring Taiwan. “The people in the coastal areas of the following provinces are strongly advised to immediately evacuate to higher grounds or move farther inland,” the state seismology institute said in an advisory. Coastal areas in the provinces of […]
By Amber WANG TAIPEI, April 3, 2024 (AFP) – A major 7.4-magnitude earthquake hit Taiwan’s east on Wednesday morning, prompting tsunami warnings for the self-ruled island as well as parts of southern Japan and the Philippines. The quake hit just before 8:00am local time (0000 GMT), with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) putting the epicentre 18 kilometres (11 miles) south of Taiwan’s Hualien City, at a depth of 34.8 km. Japan’s Meteorological Agency issued […]
By Amber Wang with Dene-Hern Chen in Hong Kong TAIPEI, March 22, 2024 (AFP) – Taipei’s defence ministry announced Friday the highest single-day number of Chinese military aircraft around the self-ruled island this year, which analysts attributed as a reaction to Taiwan’s political outreach to Europe in recent days. Beijing claims democratic Taiwan as part of its territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring it under China’s control. Friday’s incursion, an […]
FUNAFUTI, Tuvalu, Feb 29, 2024 (AFP) – Tuvalu’s new Prime Minister Feleti Teo says his government is focused on the “many key development priorities” facing his Pacific Island nation, not debates about Taiwan relations that have consumed outsiders. The government will “concentrate working on the key priorities of Tuvalu” he told a small group of media outlets, including AFP, on Wednesday. “Unless there are any major issues in that relationship”, he said it would not […]
FUNAFUTI, Tuvalu, Feb 28, 2024 (AFP) – Tuvalu’s new government on Wednesday vowed to keep up its “special” relationship with Taiwan, ending speculation that the Pacific island nation was poised to switch diplomatic recognition to Beijing. “The new government wishes to reaffirm its commitment to the long-term and lasting special relationship between Tuvalu and the Republic of China, Taiwan,” Prime Minister Feleti Teo’s government said in a statement of priorities. Tuvalu, with a population of […]
Eleven Chinese naval vessels were detected around Taiwan, Taipei’s defence ministry said on Wednesday, the highest number this year as a row between the island and China over a fatal fishing boat incident drags on. A Chinese speedboat carrying four people capsized on February 14 near Taiwan’s Kinmen islands while being pursued by the Taiwanese coast guard, throwing all on board into the water. Two of the crew died and two others were rescued and […]
KIKUYO, Japan, Feb 22, 2024 (AFP) – Surrounded by fields of carrots and cabbages, workers are putting the finishing touches to a factory opening on Saturday that is a milestone for both US ally Japan and Taiwanese chip giant TSMC. The $8.6-billion facility in the southern Kumamoto region showcases TSMC’s efforts to make some of its strategically crucial chips elsewhere than hotspot Taiwan, as well as Japan’s push to revive its once-dominant semiconductor sector. The […]
TAIPEI, Feb 22, 2024 (AFP) – The chairman of the US House of Representatives committee on China accused Beijing of “bullying” Taiwan, as he arrived on the self-ruled island Thursday for talks with its leaders. Mike Gallagher heads a five-member delegation set to meet with the island’s top leadership, including President Tsai Ing-wen and Vice President Lai Ching-te, who won last month’s presidential election and will take office in May. “Time and again Taiwan […]
PHNOM PENH, Feb 16, 2024 (AFP) – Two Taiwanese men have been sentenced to two years in jail each after they staged a fake kidnapping from a Cambodian seaside resort and posted video of it online, a court said on Friday. Chen Neng-chuan, 31, and Lu Tsu-hsien, 34, were arrested after they posted a video of themselves being detained and beaten up by security guards at a building in Sihanoukville on Facebook earlier this […]
BEIJING, Feb 15, 2024 (AFP) – China condemned Taiwanese authorities on Wednesday after two Chinese nationals died in a boat accident while pursued by Taiwan’s coast guard. The Chinese boat was carrying four people when it capsized near the Kinmen Islands, throwing all onboard into the water, Chinese and Taiwanese authorities said. “The malignant incident severely harmed the feelings of compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Straits,” Zhu Fenglian, a spokesperson for China’s Taiwan […]
