The family of the late Hsieh Tung-ming (
Instead it chose to accept help from Hsieh's former party, the KMT, in arranging the service.
"We will assist the family in handling the funeral but will not form a funeral committee," said the KMT's spokeswoman Chen Feng-hsin (
Hsieh died on Sunday in the US and on Monday both the KMT and the government offered their help in handling the funeral.
The presidential office held a meeting yesterday, hosted by advisor to the president Lee Yuan-tsu (
KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰), who was invited to the meeting, refused to attend. During the meeting, Hsieh's daughter-in-law, Helen Lin (林澄枝), turned down the government's offer, saying the family wanted to keep the funeral as simple as possible.
Because Hsieh had been a vice president, President Chen Shui-bian (
Chen insisted on assigning 12 government officials to assist the family with the funeral, including Lee, Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (
The group concluded that a funeral committee would not be formed to hold the service, but that the government would instead later publish a commemorative anthology, to be compiled by Academia Historica President Chang Yen-hsien (
The Executive Yuan will also require government agencies to lower their national flags to half-mast on April 22, the day of the funeral.
Participants in yesterday's meeting suggested that Hsieh's family be presented with the national flag at the funeral. But Hsieh's relatives insisted that the service be kept simple and that such a presentation not be made.
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
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
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
RSS