Premier Su Tseng-chang (
"My attitude never changes, in terms of the government's policy toward lifting bans against Chinese tourists, the three links or Taiwanese banks' investment in China," Su said when asked by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lee Jih-chu (
At the same session, Mainland Affairs Council Chairman Joseph Wu (
"Liberalizing the three links has always been the government's policy. In addition, several agreements on the issue were achieved during the Conference on Sustaining Taiwan's Economic Development last summer, too. That explains the government's determination to keep pursuing this," Wu said.
`Always friendly'
Su said Taiwan is always friendly toward China. The problem is that China never treats Taiwan's government as a sovereign authority since issues like the links need to be discussed and negotiated between governments.
"They are always unfriendly when it comes to this issue. This is not good," Su said.
Meanwhile, in a related development, the Ministry of the Interior on Thursday issued operating guidelines for an amendment to the Statute Governing Relations Between Peoples of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (兩岸人民關係條例) to allow certain civil servants ranked grade 10 or below and police officers ranked level 4 or below to visit China.
Restricted
All civil servants as well as personnel in the Ministry of Defense, the Bureau of Investigation and the National Security Bureau were restricted from traveling to China by the statute prior to the amendment, which was promulgated last July.
According to the guidelines, the new categories of civil servants and officers are eligible to apply to their respective agencies to visit China at least a week before departure.
A recent ministry press release said that such personnel were not permitted to reveal confidential information or otherwise compromise national security interests while in China, and that violators would be punished accordingly.
"[Civil servants and police officers visiting China] must... safeguard against leaking confidential documents, photographs or visual aids, information or physical objects," the release said.
MAC Vice Chairman Johnnason Liu (
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
RSS