The conciliatory policy with China adopted by President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration has not terminated the tug-of-war over overseas Taiwanese, Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission Minister Wu Ying-yih (吳英毅) said yesterday.
“It’s true that mainland China has actively pandered to overseas Taiwanese compatriots by using its economic power. The mainland even used its strength to reach out to compatriots [favoring the Democratic Progressive Party rather than the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)],” Wu said.
China has wooed overseas Taiwanese holding US nationality by inviting them to the Shanghai Expo and granting them “more than landing visa treatment,” Wu said.
Wu was responding to KMT Legislator Liao Wan-ru (廖婉如) at the legislature’s Foreign and National Defense Committee.
“Mainland China is very generous to overseas Chinese compatriots with money in comparison with [services] the [Taiwanese] government provides to Taiwanese compatriots. If this situation continues, I really worry that compatriots will switch allegiance to mainland China,” Liao said.
Saying that he sympathized with Liao’s concerns, Wu said that the commission could strengthen ties with overseas Taiwanese to win hearts and minds.
KMT Legislator Chang Hsien-yao (張顯耀) asked why there has been less investment in Taiwan by overseas Taiwanese than expected this year.
Aside from the global economic crisis, a major factor affecting expats’ decisions to invest in Taiwan was that they were unsure in the first half of the year if the cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) would be signed, Wu said.
“The ECFA has become the best selling point for inviting overseas compatriots to return to Taiwan. I believe that investment by overseas compatriots next year will be higher than in previous years,” Wu said.
In other news, Chinese-language Next Magazine yesterday reported that a top Taiwanese prosecutor probing several major scandals has been targeted by cyber-attacks from China.
Chinese hackers have obtained confidential information from the home computer of a chief prosecutor at the Taipei district prosecutor’s office surnamed Huang (黃) on at least four top cases, the magazine said.
Among the cases was that of an alleged spy for China in Taiwan’s Presidential Office as well as a diplomatic scandal implicating former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) right-hand man Chiou I-jen (邱義仁), it said.
The weekly cited unnamed sources as saying that the National Security Bureau first spotted the cyber-attacks in June and instructed that Huang’s computer be reprogrammed to stem any further information leaks.
The prosecutor’s office was not immediately available for comment.
The report came after the bureau said on Monday that in the year to October, it was targeted by Chinese hackers in 598,000 attacks, or 12 percent of a total of 4.99 million attacks. Six in 10 attacks came from within Taiwan.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY AFP
NEXT GENERATION: The four plants in the Central Taiwan Science Park, designated Fab 25, would consist of four 1.4-nanometer wafer manufacturing plants, TSMC said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) plans to begin construction of four new plants later this year, with the aim to officially launch production of 2-nanometer semiconductor wafers by late 2028, Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau director-general Hsu Maw-shin (許茂新) said. Hsu made the announcement at an event on Friday evening celebrating the Central Taiwan Science Park’s 22nd anniversary. The second phase of the park’s expansion would commence with the initial construction of water detention ponds and other structures aimed at soil and water conservation, Hsu said. TSMC has officially leased the land, with the Central Taiwan Science Park having handed over the
AUKUS: The Australian Ambassador to the US said his country is working with the Pentagon and he is confident that submarine issues will be resolved Australian Ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd on Friday said that if Taiwan were to fall to China’s occupation, it would unleash China’s military capacities and capabilities more broadly. He also said his country is working with the Pentagon on the US Department of Defense’s review of the AUKUS submarine project and is confident that all issues raised will be resolved. Rudd, who served as Australian prime minister from 2007 to 2010 and for three months in 2013, made the remarks at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado and stressed the longstanding US-Australia alliance and his close relationship with the US Undersecretary
TAIWAN IS TAIWAN: US Representative Tom Tiffany said the amendment was not controversial, as ‘Taiwan is not — nor has it ever been — part of Communist China’ The US House of Representatives on Friday passed an amendment banning the US Department of Defense from creating, buying or displaying any map that shows Taiwan as part of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The “Honest Maps” amendment was approved in a voice vote on Friday as part of the Department of Defense Appropriations Act for the 2026 fiscal year. The amendment prohibits using any funds from the act to create, buy or display maps that show Taiwan, Kinmen, Matsu, Penghu, Wuciou (烏坵), Green Island (綠島) or Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) as part of the PRC. The act includes US$831.5 billion in
‘WORLD WAR III’: Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene said the aid would inflame tensions, but her amendment was rejected 421 votes against six The US House of Representatives on Friday passed the Department of Defense Appropriations Act for fiscal 2026, which includes US$500 million for Taiwan. The bill, which totals US$831.5 billion in discretionary spending, passed in a 221-209 vote. According to the bill, the funds for Taiwan would be administered by the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency and would remain available through Sept. 30, 2027, for the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative. The legislation authorizes the US Secretary of Defense, with the agreement of the US Secretary of State, to use the funds to assist Taiwan in procuring defense articles and services, and military training. Republican Representative
RSS