With the legislative polls just two weeks away, observers from overseas have begun to arrive in Taiwan to watch the elections, take part in related campaigns or discuss post-election party realignment, sources said yesterday.
Two groups of former officials, scholars and writers from Japan -- which will account for around 100 election-related visitors -- will arrive this week to observe the elections and to assist the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) in its election drive, sources said.
Some of the most prominent of those arriving will be Nakajima Mineo, president of the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Arima Genji, a former Japanese minister of state for defense in the 1970s, renowned Japanese cartoonist Kobayashi Yoshinori, as well as Japanese writer Kamisaka Fuyuko.
One of the groups, called the "TSU Campaign Troupe Saluting Lee Teng-hui (李登輝)," will hold a press conference tomorrow to voice its support for former president Lee as well as the TSU, sources at the TSU said.
Another major group of scholars will take part in a one-day seminar on post-election Taiwan on Dec. 2, a symposium jointly held by the Government Information Office and National Chengchi University, the conference's secretary-general, Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), told the Taipei Times.
The seminar will focus on three themes: the significance of Taiwan's elections and democratic consolidation, comparative analysis of democratic elections, and Taiwan's democracy, peace and security in East Asia, according to the symposium's tentative schedule.
Overseas participants include Thomas Gold, a sociologist at University of California, Berkeley, Andrew Nathan, a China specialist at Columbia University, Bonnie Glaser, a consultant on Asian affairs with the Pacific Forum CSIS, and Michael Yahuda, a political scientist from the London School of Economics and Political Science, among others.
Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) is scheduled to give a keynote speech during the luncheon called: "Democracy and democratic consolidation: a comparative experience."
Stanley Kao (高碩泰), director general of the department of North American Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said members of the US Republican National Council and members of Progressive Policy Institute, a US Democratic Party think tank, are scheduled to visit Taiwan after the Dec. 1 elections.
In addition, four scholars from the Asian-African College of Moscow University arrived in Taiwan on Monday to attend an academic symposium organized by Tamkang University as well as to take advantage of the opportunity to observe the elections, sources said.
The Russian delegation included M. Meyer and A. Karneev, dean and deputy dean of the college.
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
DRONE CENTRAL: Taiwan aims to become Asia’s democratic hub for drones, with most exports focused on high-quality military-grade models, an official said Taiwan’s drone industry is expected to expand significantly by 2030, producing 100,000 units per month and exporting half of them, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Current drone production capacity is about 15,000 units per month, but the industry can quickly scale up as demand increases, Industrial Development Administration Director-General Chiou Chyou-huey (邱求慧) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s drone output grew 2.5-fold last year to NT$12.9 billion (US$408.3 million) under a government program to develop the uncrewed vehicle sector, he said. The Executive Yuan in October last year approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion into domestic production of uncrewed aerial
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
WARNING: China should stop engaging in actions that undermine regional peace and stability, as it would only build resentment among people across the Strait, the CGA said China has deployed more than 100 navy, coast guard and other vessels in waters from the Yellow Sea to the South China Sea and the western Pacific since US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) met in Beijing, National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said yesterday. “In this part of the world, #China is the one & only PROBLEM wrecking the #StatusQuo & threatening regional peace & stability,” Wu wrote on X. In a separate post, he said Beijing was coercing Taiwan’s maritime domain, calling it illegal and provocative, after the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) expelled a
RSS