Beijing's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) yesterday agreed to track down traffickers involved in smuggling Chinese women out of the country, in a rare reaction to Taiwan's accusations that Beijing has condoned the crime.
In a faxed letter, ARATS also urged Taiwan to severely punish the traffickers who allegedly dumped 20 Chinese women into the sea from two boats on Tuesday as they were being chased by the Taiwanese coast guard. Six of the women drowned.
It was the first time in several years that the association has made a formal contact with its Taiwanese counterpart, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF).
ARATS halted formal contacts with the SEF years ago when relations turned icy, with Beijing accusing Taiwanese leaders of covertly pushing for formal independence.
Shi Hwi-yow (
"It is important for the two sides to work together in cracking down on human smuggling," Shi told reporters.
Thousands of Chinese immigrate illegally to Taiwan each year, and catching them and keeping them under detention until China takes them back is very expensive, Shi said.
Following Tuesday's incident, President Chen Shui-bian (
Government spokesman Lin Chia-lung (
Earlier yesterday, Chan Chih-hun (
"There are 2,364 Chinese migrants under detention [in Taiwan], and some of them have been here for a long time. We want China to take them [the illegal immigrants] back soon," Chan said.
He said 1,953 of the illegal immigrants are women and that "leaving these women here is not fair from a human rights point of view."
About 150 immigrants are currently being repatriated to China each month, he said, adding that he hoped both sides could hold talks on illegal immigration and people smuggling.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
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