Premier Frank Hsieh (
"The government will not encourage the establishment of casinos in Taiwan's offshore islands such as Kinmen and Penghu, but if the local people and local governments support the idea, the central government will change its attitude and help them. However, that will only happen when related mechanisms have been completed," Hsieh said.
The premier said that he has discussed this issue with President Chen Shui-bian (
"By `entertainment-style' I mean those casinos at which the whole family will be welcome, instead of casinos which will only attract gamblers," Hsieh said.
"The casinos in Las Vegas will be the role models for us if we want to do it," he said.
Hsieh visited Kinmen yesterday afternoon.
He promised that the government will help to revitalize the island's businesses on all levels.
Hsieh said that the Cabinet has damaged its relationship with the legislature over the casino issue for the past few years because both sides insisted on having their own way.
The premier also said that Kinmen's problem with landmines and scrap ammunition must be solved as soon as possible.
He said that the Kinmen County Government is currently working on the problem with help from foreign mine-sweeping experts.
"Since Kinmen used to be a battlefield during [China's] civil war, there are a lot of abandoned mines which could explode and injure innocent people. If we want to develop the tourism business, we have to get rid of these abandoned mines first," he said.
Hsieh also visited Kinhu Elementary School, where he met a group of the school's female gymnasts, ranging from six to 12 years old.
The premier, who was a gymnast when he was a teenager, was treated to a performance by four members of Kinhu's gymnastics team.
Hsieh donated NT$500,000 yesterday to help the team grow.
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:
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