President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) embarked on a 12-day trip to Africa last night, visiting three ally nations in the continent for the first time since taking office in 2008.
Ma will visit Burkina Faso, Gambia and Swaziland.
However, his scheduled visit to Sao Tome and Principe was canceled because the ally nation said Ma’s visit coincided with Sao Tomean President Manuel Pinto da Costa’s visit to Cuba, raising concerns about the stability of diplomatic ties between the two countries.
The African tour marks Ma’s sixth foreign trip since becoming president. The last time a Taiwanese head of state visited the continent was when former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) visited the four African allies in 2002.
The delegation includes adviser to the president Steve Chan (詹啟賢), Minister of Foreign Affairs Timothy Yang (楊進添) and Council of Labor Affairs Minister Jennifer Wang (王如玄).
Ma’s trip comes amid domestic disputes over a series of controversial policies, from US beef imports and avian flu to the tax system and the removal of a freeze on fuel price increases.
Saying that Taiwan, under Ma’s governance, has become a subsidiary of China, opposition lawmakers called into question the timing of the overseas trip, characterizing it as Ma’s attempt to escape various controversies, such as the issue of the “one country, two areas (一國兩區)” proposal by former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄), rising commodity prices and the planned relaxation of a ban on beef products containing ractopamine residue.
Presidential Office spokesman Fan Chiang Tai-chi (范姜泰基) -responded by saying the trip had been arranged some time ago, and that, as the nation’s leader, the president should take into consideration both domestic policy and diplomacy, adding that visiting African allies was part of efforts to deepen the nation’s diplomatic ties.
Consolidating diplomatic ties and expanding the nation’s international space did not conflict with handling national matters, he said.
The president trusts Premier Sean Chen (陳冲) to handle ongoing issues and to solve any -problems that arise, Fan Chiang added.
Ma visited Central and South America in 2009, and was originally scheduled to visit the four African allies in March last year, but the trip was postponed after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and mass protests in North Africa.
During the 12-day trip, Ma will visit hospitals, schools and factories that Taiwan has helped build and inspect cooperative projects in agriculture, medicine and education. He will also meet with Taiwanese businesspeople in the area.
Additional reporting by Tseng Wei-chen
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
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
RSS