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
FIREPOWER: On top of the torpedoes, the military would procure Kestrel II anti-tank weapons systems to replace aging license-produced M72 LAW launchers Taiwan is to receive US-made Mark 48 torpedoes and training simulators over the next three years, following delays that hampered the navy’s operational readiness, the Ministry of National Defense’s latest budget proposal showed. The navy next year would acquire four training simulator systems for the torpedoes and take receipt of 14 torpedoes in 2027 and 10 torpedoes in 2028, the ministry said in its budget for the next fiscal year. The torpedoes would almost certainly be utilized in the navy’s two upgraded Chien Lung-class submarines and the indigenously developed Hai Kun, should the attack sub successfully reach operational status. US President Donald Trump
TPP RALLY: The clashes occurred near the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall on Saturday at a rally to mark the anniversary of a raid on former TPP chairman Ko Wen-je People who clashed with police at a Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) rally in Taipei on Saturday would be referred to prosecutors for investigation, said the Ministry of the Interior, which oversees the National Police Agency. Taipei police had collected evidence of obstruction of public officials and coercion by “disorderly” demonstrators, as well as contraventions of the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法), the ministry said in a statement on Sunday. It added that amid the “severe pushing and jostling” by some demonstrators, eight police officers were injured, including one who was sent to hospital after losing consciousness, allegedly due to heat stroke. The Taipei
NO LIVERPOOL TRIP: Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who won a gold medal in the boxing at the Paris Olympics, was embroiled in controversy about her gender at that event Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) will not attend this year’s World Boxing Championships in Liverpool, England, due to a lack of response regarding her sex tests from the organizer, World Boxing. The national boxing association on Monday said that it had submitted all required tests to World Boxing, but had not received a response as of Monday, the departure day for the championships. It said the decision for Lin to skip the championships was made to protect its athletes, ensuring they would not travel to the UK without a guarantee of participation. Lin, who won a gold medal in the women’s 57kg boxing
The US has revoked Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) authorization to freely ship essential gear to its main Chinese chipmaking base, potentially curtailing its production capabilities at that older-generation facility. American officials recently informed TSMC of their decision to end the Taiwanese chipmaker’s so-called validated end user (VEU) status for its Nanjing site. The action mirrors steps the US took to revoke VEU designations for China facilities owned by Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc. The waivers are set to expire in about four months. “TSMC has received notification from the US Government that our VEU authorization for TSMC Nanjing
RSS