The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) rebutted complaints by artist Chen Chieh-jen (陳界仁) yesterday, after Chen told reporters that an AIT consular officer had been rude to him when he applied for a US visa last week.
A well-known contemporary artist, Chen has been invited to contribute to the Prospect.1 New Orleans contemporary art biennial next month.
The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday quoted Chen as saying that when he went to AIT to apply for a US visa last week, an immigration officer rejected his application and said in Chinese: “I suspect you would stay in the country illegally.”
The AIT said in a statement that Chen’s application for a visa had not been rejected but it could not process the application because Chen had not provided all the information required on the form.
“Regrettably, instead of providing the information we needed to renew his visa, Mr Chen chose to misrepresent his experience to the media. His visa application remains active in our system and he is always welcome to return to complete the application process,” the statement said.
AIT declined to comment on whether any visa officer had been rude to Chen.
The newspaper report said Chen would create a blog to channel his frustration into creative energy by publishing the stories of people who say they have been treated rudely by AIT visa officers.
The collection of complaints will be part of a bigger project on the unfair treatment some Taiwanese allegedly meet when applying to visit the US, it said.
Chen said the project, rather than just being an outlet for his anger, could lead to a dialogue about “unfair treatment.”
Howard Peng (彭煒浩), a graduate of a US college, said he was not surprised by Chen’s experience.
Peng said he had had a similar experience and had heard stories in the same vein from others.
“I felt like they treated me as if I were a terrorist,” he said.
But Jackson Hsu (許玉元), a retired businessman, said he found AIT staff to be amicable.
“If you are going to the US for the right reason, then there is nothing to be scared of,” Hsu said. “The more you act like you have something to hide, the more the officers will suspect something is wrong.”
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
RSS