Faced with President Chen Shui-bian's (
John Chiang, the grandson of Chiang Kai-shek and son of Chiang Ching-kuo, said that information he had received from Taoyuan residents indicated that the mausoleums in Tzuhu (慈湖) and Touliao (頭寮) helped strengthen Taoyuan County's ties with "the history of the Republic of China."
Keeping the mausoleums in the county was also good for the local tourism industry, John Chiang said.
At a campaign event for a group of Democratic Progressive Party legislative candidates in Taipei on Friday night, the president said the military guards posted at the two mausoleums would be withdrawn early next year.
Chen also said he hoped the mausoleums would soon be relocated, as previously requested by the Chiang family.
The Chiang family made a request to the military in 2004 that the bodies be transferred to a military cemetery at Wuchih Mountain (五指山), Taipei County, where Chiang Kai-shek's other son, Weigo Chiang (蔣緯國), is buried, along with other military officers.
The relocation has not been carried out, however, because some members of the Chiang family are against it.
John Chiang said on Saturday that he was against the idea of Chen hosting any possible future relocation ceremony.
"As long as Chen is in office, I would not agree with having him host the burials because that would be an insult to my late grandfather and father," he said.
John Chiang said he might seek to amend the State Funeral Law (國葬法) if he wins re-election next month.
The current law, which took effect in 1948, stipulates that the Ministry of the Interior and "the local government of the capital" should choose a location in the capital to establish a state cemetery for those who were buried with a state funeral.
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
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