After China unilaterally decided to lift tariffs on Taiwanese fruit starting from today, Premier Frank Hsieh (
Hsieh's visit was part of the government's effort to win public support for its policy on fruit exports to China. Yesterday's talks marked the first of a series of meetings the premier will have with farmers.
Hsieh yesterday was accompanied by Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Chairman Joseph Wu (
The premier earlier yesterday afternoon dismissed media speculation that President Chen Shui-bian (
Hsieh said he has been in close contact with Chen and has not heard any comments of disgruntlement from him.
The government has been urging China to immediately begin negotiations with the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), the agency authorized by the government to handle the sale of local fruit to China.
The government also views China's one-sided announcement of tariff exemptions as part of a tactic to create political divisions within Taiwan.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (
While bilateral negotiations have not been held as China refuses to talk with the DPP government, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce declared on Thursday that the tariff-exemption policy will start from today anyway.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator and executive director of the party's Central Policy Committee Tseng Yung-chuan (
"Instead of letting political ideology get in the way, the government should help the farmers tap into the Chinese market so they can make more money," he said. "The DPP administration will only infuriate farmers if the government does not make their interests the first priority. Some form of backlash will likely be the result." Tseng said that China's preferential treatment of imported Taiwanese fruit was one of the "gifts" given by Beijing during KMT Chairman Lien Chan's (連戰) trip to China in late April.
Tseng also reiterated that his party is determined to put into practice the five-point agreement reached between Lien and Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤).
People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (
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