■ Labor
Police give foreigner count
A total of 512,980 foreigners were legally staying or residing in the country at the end of last month, according to a report released by the National Police Admin-istration (NPA) over the weekend. Among them, 437,140 possessed resident visas, while 73,525 had entered the country on short-term visas for a maximum six-month stay. The remaining 2,315 had diplomatic visas or courtesy visas. Taoyuan County boasted the largest foreign population of 75,997, followed by Taipei County with 56,757 and Taipei City with 51,258. By occupation, laborers imported with the approval of the Council of Labor Affairs accounted for 276,039, with Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam as the top three sources. Teachers came in second with 6,152; followed by businesspeople, 4,095; engineers, 3,377 and missionaries, 1,691. Of the 73,525 foreigners who entered the country on short-term visas, 22,307 had overstayed their visas by the end of last month. Of those on short-term visas, 20,941 were Americans and 15,268 were Japanese.
■ Labor
Minimum wage unchanged
Minimum monthly salary for foreign white-collar workers doing professional and highly skilled jobs in this country is NT$47,971, according to the latest Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) bulletin. The figure is unchanged from the previous bulletin, the council said. The latest bulletin also shows that research assistants working for special projects under the auspices of National Science Council must be paid at least NT$34,000 a month. If and when the monthly pay is adjusted by between NT$3,000 and NT$5,000, the council said it will issue a new bulletin.
■ Tourism
Promotion efforts paying off
Some 1.6 million tourists arrived in the first six months of this year, with over 3.2 million person-visits for the entire year a real possibility, Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Ling-san (林陵三) said yesterday. Noting that promoting tourism has been one of the major policies of the Executive Yuan over the past several years, Lin said that the efforts have begun to bear fruit, with the number of foreign tourists increasing year on year. The efforts, Lin said, have included putting more advertisements about tourist attractions in various major media outlets, including CNN and the Discovery channel. Lin, who heads the Cabinet's Tourism Development and Promotion Committee, said that there are 13 major tourist attractions nationwide.
■ Tourism
Official urges tourism talks
The government welcomes Chinese tourists wishing to visit Taiwan, but reciprocal responsibilities on the part of both sides must not be avoided, Transportation and Communications Minister Lin Ling-san (林陵三) said yesterday in an interview. Lin said that the government insists on holding talks to clarify the responsibilities of each side of the Taiwan Strait before allowing the opening, in order to break the current deadlock and prevent negative consequences. According to Lin, measures to prevent Chinese tourists from staying illegally in Taiwan -- as well as penalties for tourist agents involved in such cases -- must be fully discussed prior to a full opening to Chinese tourists. Lin urged China to conduct the negotiations with Taiwan on a reciprocal basis as soon as possible. Since 2002, only Chinese people living outside China or those entering from a third country can enter Taiwan for sightseeing.
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
A preclearance service to facilitate entry for people traveling to select airports in Japan would be available from Thursday next week to Feb. 25 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said on Tuesday. The service was first made available to Taiwanese travelers throughout the winter vacation of 2024 and during the Lunar New Year holiday. In addition to flights to the Japanese cities of Hakodate, Asahikawa, Akita, Sendai, Niigata, Okayama, Takamatsu, Kumamoto and Kagoshima, the service would be available to travelers to Kobe and Oita. The service can be accessed by passengers of 15 flight routes operated by
Taiwanese and US defense groups are collaborating to introduce deployable, semi-autonomous manufacturing systems for drones and components in a boost to the nation’s supply chain resilience. Taiwan’s G-Tech Optroelectronics Corp subsidiary GTOC and the US’ Aerkomm Inc on Friday announced an agreement with fellow US-based Firestorm Lab to adopt the latter’s xCell, a technology featuring 3D printers fitted in 6.1m container units. The systems enable aerial platforms and parts to be produced in high volumes from dispersed nodes capable of rapid redeployment, to minimize the risk of enemy strikes and to meet field requirements, they said. Firestorm chief technology officer Ian Muceus said
MORE FALL: An investigation into one of Xi’s key cronies, part of a broader ‘anti-corruption’ drive, indicates that he might have a deep distrust in the military, an expert said China’s latest military purge underscores systemic risks in its shift from collective leadership to sole rule under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), and could disrupt its chain of command and military capabilities, a national security official said yesterday. If decisionmaking within the Chinese Communist Party has become “irrational” under one-man rule, the Taiwan Strait and the regional situation must be approached with extreme caution, given unforeseen risks, they added. The anonymous official made the remarks as China’s Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia (張又俠) and Joint Staff Department Chief of Staff Liu Zhenli (劉振立) were reportedly being investigated for suspected “serious
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