President-elect Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) office yesterday urged the state-run Taiwan Post Co (台灣郵政) to postpone plans to issue a set of memorial stamps celebrating Ma's inauguration on May 20.
"The legitimacy of certain terms in the Chunghwa Post Co's design remains controversial," a press release issued by Ma's office yesterday morning said.
The postal company was known as Chunghwa Post Co until the government changed its title to Taiwan Post Co last year.
The name change drew criticism from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the pan-blue-dominated legislature is still blocking a Cabinet proposal that would legitimize the name change.
The company's plan showed four memorial stamps portraying Ma and vice president-elect Vincent Siew (
"Basically, we believe the national title and sovereignty symbol on the stamps should follow specific rules and international conventions," Ma's spokesman Lo Chih-chiang (
"In order to prevent controversy, we have decided to deal with [the design] after May 20," he said.
The news release also said the office would like to put off the postal service's plan in part because there is no urgent need to issue the memorial stamps in light of other administrative issues Ma and Siew have to deal with before they are sworn in.
When asked about the name change issue, Lo said the official title of the postal service was legally "Chunghwa Post Co."
"Before the title stipulated in the law is amended, everything should follow the law," he said.
In related developments, Lo yesterday dismissed speculation that Ma had dropped his plan to visit the US before May 20.
"We are still planning the visit. The plan has not been finalized. We will tell everyone when it is finalized," Lo said.
Lo was commenting on a Central News Agency story on Monday that quoted former American Institute in Taiwan director Douglas Paal in Washington as saying that he heard Ma had given up on his plan to visit the US by May 20, but he was not sure if this was true.
Paal was quoted as saying that it would be "very difficult" for Ma to make it to the US because the US government has its own concerns as to whether to approve Ma's plan.
"Mr Ma Ying-jeou was showing goodwill by expressing his intention to visit [the US]. The point of the visit is to repair and improve Taiwan-US relations," Lo said.
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in South Korea, the company said. Costing NT$590 million (US$18.79 million) each, the new six-carriage trains feature a redesigned interior based on "human-centric" transportation concepts, TRTC said. The design utilizes continuous longitudinal seating to widen the aisles and optimize passenger flow, while also upgrading passenger information displays and driving control systems for a more comfortable
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
RSS