Around seven reporters, who were part of the press corps traveling with President Chen Shui-bian (
After the incident was reported yesterday in a Chinese-language newspaper, Presidential Office spokesman Chen Wen-tsung (
"President Chen said he would personally pay for losses incurred by the reporters if the improper transactions could not be canceled," he said.
PHOTO: LIAO CHEN-HUEI, TAIPEI TIMES
Taiwan has asked the government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines for help in investigating the incident, Chen Wen-tsung said.
As of yesterday, seven of 40 reporters on the tour had reported irregularities with their credit-card accounts. All transactions are thought to have taken place at Roy's Inn, the hotel the reporters were staying in on Sept. 29.
Because credit-card companies have different bill-closing schedules, other reporters in the group were not able to say whether they were also victims of the alleged fraud.
"It's estimated that the loss will amount to tens of thousands of NT dollars ... but the exact amount is yet to be calculated," the spokesman said.
The problem was first discovered by Kuo Chiung-li (郭瓊俐), a staff reporter with the China Times Express. She said her credit-card company told her by text message of five transactions in the country, which made her suspicious.
"Although I used the credit card when I checked into the hotel, I paid cash for the room. I kept receiving text messages over the following days after leaving St. Vincent and the Grenadines, which was very unusual. Then I checked with the credit-card company after coming back to Taiwan," she said.
Presidential Office staffers were housed in different hotels while in the country, and no other incidents of fraud have been reported.
The Executive Yuan yesterday announced that registration for a one-time universal NT$10,000 cash handout to help people in Taiwan survive US tariffs and inflation would start on Nov. 5, with payouts available as early as Nov. 12. Who is eligible for the handout? Registered Taiwanese nationals are eligible, including those born in Taiwan before April 30 next year with a birth certificate. Non-registered nationals with residence permits, foreign permanent residents and foreign spouses of Taiwanese citizens with residence permits also qualify for the handouts. For people who meet the eligibility requirements, but passed away between yesterday and April 30 next year, surviving family members
The German city of Hamburg on Oct. 14 named a bridge “Kaohsiung-Brucke” after the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung. The footbridge, formerly known as F566, is to the east of the Speicherstadt, the world’s largest warehouse district, and connects the Dar-es-Salaam-Platz to the Brooktorpromenade near the Port of Hamburg on the Elbe River. Timo Fischer, a Free Democratic Party member of the Hamburg-Mitte District Assembly, in May last year proposed the name change with support from members of the Social Democratic Party and the Christian Democratic Union. Kaohsiung and Hamburg in 1999 inked a sister city agreement, but despite more than a quarter-century of
Taiwanese officials are courting podcasters and influencers aligned with US President Donald Trump as they grow more worried the US leader could undermine Taiwanese interests in talks with China, people familiar with the matter said. Trump has said Taiwan would likely be on the agenda when he is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) next week in a bid to resolve persistent trade tensions. China has asked the White House to officially declare it “opposes” Taiwanese independence, Bloomberg reported last month, a concession that would mark a major diplomatic win for Beijing. President William Lai (賴清德) and his top officials
‘ONE CHINA’: A statement that Berlin decides its own China policy did not seem to sit well with Beijing, which offered only one meeting with the German official German Minister for Foreign Affairs Johann Wadephul’s trip to China has been canceled, a spokesperson for his ministry said yesterday, amid rising tensions between the two nations, including over Taiwan. Wadephul had planned to address Chinese curbs on rare earths during his visit, but his comments about Berlin deciding on the “design” of its “one China” policy ahead of the trip appear to have rankled China. Asked about Wadephul’s comments, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Guo Jiakun (郭嘉昆) said the “one China principle” has “no room for any self-definition.” In the interview published on Thursday, Wadephul said he would urge China to
RSS