In the wake of China's offer on Tuesday to allow more people to visit Taiwan, the National Security Bureau (NSB) yesterday expressed concern about the the security implications of a possible influx of Chinese tourists.
"The bureau is assessing the security impact of the easing of the travel ban on Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan, and will offer an evaluation to the government soon," NSB Deputy Director Wang Chin-wang (
Nonetheless, Wang told the legislature, the move would definitely have some impact on Taiwan's national security.
He said that an influx of illegal immigrants from China would contribute to domestic security problems.
Wang said that the bureau was also concerned about the possibility of espionage by visitors from China.
In response to a question about China's offer of a pair of pandas, Wang said that Taiwan and China are still adversities, so Beijing's offer could be seen as part of Beijing's "united front" approach to win the hearts of the Taiwanese people.
As for Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan's (
"NSB Director-General Hsueh Shih-ming (
Cabinet Spokesman Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday that the government was willing to negotiate with Beijing about a relaxation of travel restrictions and reducing tariffs and restrictions on the export of Taiwanese fruit to China, but that Beijing should demonstrate its willingness to tighten security in these cross-strait exchanges.
Cho said that China should screen travelers before they leave the country, to help Taiwan send back those who overstay and to regulate travel disputes. Only then will Taiwan discuss allowing more visitors from China.
Cho said that, because Taiwan and China are both World Trade Organization (WTO) members, any negotiations on agricultural products and tourism would best be conducted under the auspices of the WTO.
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:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
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