A recent announcement by the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission (RDEC) that trips made by civil servants to China do not constitute overseas travel drew fire from lawmakers across party lines yesterday.
“[RDEC] Minister Jiang Yi-huah [江宜樺] has to resign over an announcement that sells out Taiwan,” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Chun-yee (李俊毅) said as a group of DPP lawmakers lodged a protest at the RDEC offices yesterday.
The protest was prompted by a Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) report yesterday that said on April 1 the commission posted an announcement on the government’s intranet informing government agencies that “given that going to the ‘mainland area’ is not tantamount to ‘going abroad,’” civil servants are no longer required to register on the commission’s Web site. Local government chiefs, however, would still have to submit reports should they visit China, it added.
Jiang did not meet with the DPP lawmakers yesterday.
“We will come back anytime and find you ... unless you [Jiang] plan to hide from us for the rest of your life,” Lee said.
The DPP lawmakers shouted slogans such as “Jiang Yi-huah, step down” and “Taiwan is our country,” before leaving the RDEC offices.
DPP Legislator Hsueh Ling (薛凌) slammed the announcement as an attempt to obscure civil servants’ sense of national identity and as “a precursor to eventual unification [with China].”
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus secretary-general Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) also urged the commission not to “mistake a foreign country as our country” because “the Republic of China is an independent sovereign state.”
“In accordance with the legislature’s budget review and the the Act Governing the Relations between People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (兩岸人民關係條例), trips to China are still considered trips abroad,” she said.
In response, RDEC Deputy Minister Yeh Kuang-shih (葉匡時) said yesterday that the announcement was only posted on the intranet because its technicians were testing a new system for civil servants to use when uploading reports on trips to China, as opposed to the existing one for civil servants for uploading reports on other overseas travel.
We find it regrettable that the announcement, not a finalized one, was distorted by the media, who quoted a phrase or two out of context on purpose to make it into a unification-independence issue,” Yeh said.
In view of increasing cross-strait exchanges involving civil servants, Yeh said the commission was planning to separate reporting by civil servants for their trips to China and to other countries on two separate systems.
The RDEC considered it necessary not to make public the contents of some of the reports on civil servants’ trips to China, Yeh said.
“It is still in the review stage,” he said.
Regulations state that when civil servants take an overseas trip, they are required to complete a report when they return and the reports are then made public online.
Regulations on government cross-strait activities state that civil servants are required to submit their itineraries and travel details to their superiors and the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), but are not required to upload the information online.
Commenting on the controversy, MAC Deputy Minister Liu Te-shun (劉德勳) said yesterday that the phrasing in the announcement that “going to the ‘mainland area’ is not tantamount to ‘going abroad’” should not be blown up into a big issue because “cross-strait relations are a special case.”
Liu said that was the reason why a law called the Act Governing Relations Between People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area was originally passed.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY FLORA WANG
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
NO CHANGE: The TRA makes clear that the US does not consider the status of Taiwan to have been determined by WWII-era documents, a former AIT deputy director said The American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT) comments that World War-II era documents do not determine Taiwan’s political status accurately conveyed the US’ stance, the US Department of State said. An AIT spokesperson on Saturday said that a Chinese official mischaracterized World War II-era documents as stating that Taiwan was ceded to the China. The remarks from the US’ de facto embassy in Taiwan drew criticism from the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, whose director said the comments put Taiwan in danger. The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday reported that a US State Department spokesperson confirmed the AIT’s position. They added that the US would continue to
One of two tropical depressions that formed off Taiwan yesterday morning could turn into a moderate typhoon by the weekend, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Tropical Depression No. 21 formed at 8am about 1,850km off the southeast coast, CWA forecaster Lee Meng-hsuan (李孟軒) said. The weather system is expected to move northwest as it builds momentum, possibly intensifying this weekend into a typhoon, which would be called Mitag, Lee said. The radius of the storm is expected to reach almost 200km, she said. It is forecast to approach the southeast of Taiwan on Monday next week and pass through the Bashi Channel
RSS