In order to make an informed decision about the planned visit of the director of China's Taiwan Affairs Office, Chen Yunlin (陳雲林), the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) yesterday sent a letter to its counterpart in China, urging it to discuss the matter with Taiwan as soon as possible.
According to the SEF, which was authorized to act on behalf of the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), Chen's application to lead more than 60 high-ranking Chinese officials on a visit to Taiwan next month needs to be reviewed carefully.
The letter, addressed to China's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS, 海協會) said that Taiwan would first like to invite Chinese representatives to visit the country for a consultation regarding Chen's visit. The government's decision on Chen's application will be based on the results of this discussion.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) invited Chen to visit the country to attend an economic and trade forum next month.
The SEF and ARATS are two-semi official bodies set up by Taipei Beijing and Taipei respectively to deal with exchanges across the strait in the absence of formal ties.
"We sent the letter today and will hopefully receive a response soon," SEF secretary-general You Ying-lung (
However, You added that he "would not predict" if the ARATS would respond to the request.
MAC officials said earlier that the need for prior consultation on Chen's application is due to his special position. In addition, officials said, it would be possible for Taiwanese representatives to visit China for the consultation if the Chinese officials have difficulties in visiting Taiwan.
The consultation is a necessary procedure for the government to review the case, the MAC officials said.
According to the SEF, it would be more appropriate if the visit by officials of China's Taiwan Affairs Office is carried out based on improved cross-strait relations.
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
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
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