Taiwan and China yesterday signed two cross-strait agreements on meteorological exchanges and earthquake monitoring, the 20th and 21st bilateral agreements inked since 2008, during the 10th round of cross-strait talks in Taipei.
Under the agreements, Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) will organize task forces and establish communication channels on weather prediction and forecast, earthquake warnings and technological cooperation in meteorology, and seismic information.
SEF Chairman Lin Join-sane (林中森) said the pacts would allow the two sides to join efforts to better protect people from natural disasters amid severe weather conditions around the world.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Taiwan and China began information exchanges and cooperation in 1982. Following the signing of the pacts, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) of Taiwan will work with China’s Meteorological Administration and Earthquake Administration to improve the accuracy of weather forecasts and the prevention of natural disasters across the Taiwan Strait, he said.
Security authorities on the two sides have also conducted national security reviews on the content of the agreements and ensured that the scope of information sharing and exchanges will not affect national security, he said.
CWB Director-General Shin Tzay-chyn (辛在勤) said the agreements would help better predict the arrival of dust storms in Taiwan, as pollutants blowing across the Taiwan Strait from China have increasingly affected the nation’s air quality.
The agreements were signed at the Grand Hotel in the afternoon after a top-official talk held between Lin and ARATS Chairman Chen Deming (陳德銘), during which the two exchanged landscape paintings and tapestries as a gesture to promote prosperity across the Taiwan Strait.
The next round of cross-strait talks will address issues including the trade of goods, dispute-resolving mechanisms, tax agreements, the establishment of representative offices on the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, environmental protection and flight safety standard cooperation.
When asked about the failure to sign a cross-strait tax agreement during this round of negotiations, Lin said there were still concerns about the content of the agreement, and the pact should be signed during the next round of cross-strait talks.
“The negotiation on the cross-strait tax agreement is almost done, but there are still some concerns, and we want to sign the agreement after we have more communication with the public and clear their doubts,” he said.
Other issues mentioned during the talks included the increase of cross-strait air routes and transit stops in Taiwan for Chinese citizens heading elsewhere.
Chang said the foundation and ARATS continued to negotiate the two issues, and the SEF also stressed that the cross-strait median would not be on the agenda in the negotiation of the transit stops in Taiwan.
“The cross-strait median involves national security and national defense, and there is no room for negotiation on the issue,” he said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique