Close to 20 single female politicians from both the blue and green camps have created a "singles club," the Chinese-language media reported yesterday.
The report said around a dozen legislators and Cabinet officials set up the Orchid Society (
Founding members include PFP Legislator Shen Chih-hui (
Members from the executive branch include Council for Hakka Affairs Chairwoman Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭), Mainland Affairs Council Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Council of Labor Affairs Chairwoman Chen Chu (陳菊) and Council of Cultural Affairs Chairwoman Tchen Yu-chiou (陳郁秀), the report said.
Wang was "expelled" from the club after she got married in May, the report said.
The club does not make the identities of its members public, the report said, and the membership has expanded to almost 20, with DPP Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) as a new member.
The report did not say where and how the members meet or what the club activities are.
Last month, female lawmakers lined up to blast the Ministry of the Interior for considering a tax on unmarried citizens aged 40 and older as part of an attempt to turn around the declining birthrate.
The outcry prompted Minister of the Interior Yu Cheng-hsien (
KMT Legislator Yang panned the "single's tax" as the most grotesque initiative she had ever heard of.
"The disputed tax was purely a scholarly opinion," Yu told the legislature last month. "It has been rejected by the ministry."
The task force also scrapped an earlier plan to award couples NT$30,000 for every child after two on grounds the measure would strain cash-strapped state coffers.
EXCUSES: Beijing is using government and research vessels as a pretext to harass the nation and enter its EEZ, and engage in ‘hegemonic expansion,’ the coast guard said The Coast Guard Administration yesterday said it drove away Chinese oceanographic research vessel Xiang Yang Hong 22 (向陽紅33) from restricted waters after warning it that it was in Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ). The Chinese vessel entered restricted waters off the coast of Yilan County’s Suao (蘇澳) at 11:35pm on Thursday, the coast guard said, adding that it dispatched the Lanyu patrol vessel and the boat PP-10077 to shadow the Chinese ship and issue radio warnings ordering it to leave. China has no sovereignty over waters off Taiwan’s east coast, Lanyu’s crew told Xiang Yang Hong 22 over the radio, and demanded
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Four Taiwanese universities have been ranked among the world's top 200 institutions in the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings for next year, the highest Taiwan has ever placed in the category, with National Taiwan University (NTU) achieving its best performance at 54th globally and 17th in Asia. The four Taiwanese institutions in the global top 200 are NTU (54th), National Tsing Hua University (142nd), National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (177th) and National Cheng Kung University (191st), the rankings showed. All four universities achieved their highest-ever global rankings this year, QS data showed. National Cheng Kung University entered the top 200 for
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