To assuage fears that Chinese students could impact on the labor market, Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) Chairwoman Wang Ju-hsuan (王如玄) gave assurances yesterday that Chinese would not be allowed to work in Taiwan.
“I will not allow Chinese people to work in Taiwan,” Wang told legislators, who demanded in a legislative committee session that she give a definitive response on whether Chinese students would be eligible to work in the country after completing their studies in Taiwan.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Liao Kuo-tung (廖國棟) asked Wang if the CLA would bar Chinese students from working in Taiwan while they are in school or after they graduate, saying that this could have a negative impact on the deteriorating employment outlook for Taiwanese college graduates.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator William Lai (賴清德) also expressed concern that after it opens local universities to Chinese students, the government would eventually allow Chinese students to stay and work in the country.
DPP Legislator Wong Chin-chu (翁金珠) voiced doubts that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) would be able to keep his campaign promise to lower the unemployment rate to less than 3 percent during his four-year term if Chinese students were allowed to work in Taiwan.
In response, Wang said the council would give top priority to protecting employment opportunities for Taiwanese.
Wang initially said that Chinese nationals should be subject to the same rules as other foreigners, who are required to meet very strict criteria to work in Taiwan. She also said that as the nation’s economic development was difficult to forecast, it would leave open the possibility of opening the employment market to Chinese workers at some point in the future.
But when pressed by KMT Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) to give a clear answer, Wang said she would not allow Chinese nationals to work in Taiwan.
Following Ma’s announcement on Monday that the government would begin to recognize diplomas issued by schools in China and allow Chinese students to attend universities in Taiwan starting next year, some legislators expressed fears that Chinese students could be allowed to work in Taiwan and thus add pressure to the employment market.
During his presidential campaign, Ma promised that he would not allow Chinese to work in Taiwan.
The Mainland Affairs Council said the pertinent articles in the Statute Governing the Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (兩岸人民關係條例) would have to be amended and sent to the Legislative Yuan for review and approval before Chinese students can be admitted to Taiwan universities.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
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
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
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