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
MAKING WAVES: China’s maritime militia could become a nontraditional threat in war, clogging up shipping lanes to prevent US or Japanese intervention, a report said About 1,900 Chinese ships flying flags of convenience and fishing vessels that participated in China’s military exercises around Taiwan last month and in January last year have been listed for monitoring, Coast Guard Administration (CGA) Deputy Director-General Hsieh Ching-chin (謝慶欽) said yesterday. Following amendments to the Commercial Port Act (商港法) and the Law of Ships (船舶法) last month, the CGA can designate possible berthing areas or deny ports of call for vessels suspected of loitering around areas where undersea cables can be accessed, Oceans Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said. The list of suspected ships, originally 300, had risen to about
DAREDEVIL: Honnold said it had always been a dream of his to climb Taipei 101, while a Netflix producer said the skyscraper was ‘a real icon of this country’ US climber Alex Honnold yesterday took on Taiwan’s tallest building, becoming the first person to scale Taipei 101 without a rope, harness or safety net. Hundreds of spectators gathered at the base of the 101-story skyscraper to watch Honnold, 40, embark on his daredevil feat, which was also broadcast live on Netflix. Dressed in a red T-shirt and yellow custom-made climbing shoes, Honnold swiftly moved up the southeast face of the glass and steel building. At one point, he stepped onto a platform midway up to wave down at fans and onlookers who were taking photos. People watching from inside
Japan’s strategic alliance with the US would collapse if Tokyo were to turn away from a conflict in Taiwan, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said yesterday, but distanced herself from previous comments that suggested a possible military response in such an event. Takaichi expressed her latest views on a nationally broadcast TV program late on Monday, where an opposition party leader criticized her for igniting tensions with China with the earlier remarks. Ties between Japan and China have sunk to the worst level in years after Takaichi said in November that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could bring about a Japanese
The WHO ignored early COVID-19 warnings from Taiwan, US Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O’Neill said on Friday, as part of justification for Washington withdrawing from the global health body. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday said that the US was pulling out of the UN agency, as it failed to fulfill its responsibilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The WHO “ignored early COVID warnings from Taiwan in 2019 by pretending Taiwan did not exist, O’Neill wrote on X on Friday, Taiwan time. “It ignored rigorous science and promoted lockdowns.” The US will “continue international coordination on infectious
RSS