The government has been stepping up its efforts to export Taiwan's democratic experience to China by inviting Chinese academics and professionals to observe mayoral and council elections next month.
"Recently, we have been urging Chinese academics and professionals who visit Taiwan for civil exchanges to watch the election campaigns and experience Taiwan's democracy," Jan Jyh-horng (
Jan told the Taipei Times that the government had been courting Chinese visitors as a result of President Chen Shui-bian's (
"As long as they are willing to further understand Taiwan's democracy, we will arrange for them to attend campaign activities," Jan said.
Many Chinese academics and professionals attended campaign events held by Taipei and Kaohsiung mayoral candidates last week, he said, although he declined to name those who had attended the activities.
A MAC source said that the academics and professionals wanted to keep their activities secret for fear they might get into trouble with the Chinese authorities when they returned home.
MAC Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen (
"We would like to invite Chinese nationals to observe Taiwan's elections to help them understand the work of election personnel in a bid to create a basis for China's democratization," Tsai said in a speech to overseas Taiwanese in the US last week.`
Tsai said a main factor in improving cross-strait relations was how quickly China moved toward democratization.
She reiterated that the government would observe and evaluate China's human-rights situation to compile periodic reports, which could help the government and the private sector draw up plans for providing assistance.
Tsai said the government would push ahead with its plan to establish a Taiwan Democracy Foundation, first proposed by Chen in September
Lawmakers are now discussing the budget for the foundation, around NT$150 million.
The draft budget failed in its first reading in the legislature at the end of last month, with some opposition legislators urging greater supervision of the foundation's operations.
A major sticking point is the third of the foundation's budget earmarked for political parties in Taiwan. Legislators from the KMT and DPP have expressed concerns that allocating these funds could create inter-party disputes.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
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