Singapore and New Zealand made the unprecedented move of publicly commending Taiwan for its efforts to alleviate cross-strait tensions during the UN General Assembly debate on Monday, saying stability in the Taiwan Strait was crucial to the harmony in the Asian region, a Central News Agency (CNA) report said yesterday.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband also penned a letter for the first time on behalf of Prime Minister Gordon Brown to the British-Taiwan All Party Parliamentary Group, stating London’s support for Taiwan’s participation in “specialized multilateral groups” such as the WHO.
“In particular, we strongly support the principle enshrined in the WHO Constitution that the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being. It is important therefore that Taiwan should be able to interact effectively with the WHO, not just to protect the interests of its own population but also to ensure the integrity of the global health safety net,” the letter said.
“We welcome the fact that ... Taiwan decided to adopt a more pragmatic approach towards the issue of UN participation ... We believe that the ongoing dialogue between China and Taiwan represents an opportunity to make progress on international representation and wider practical confidence building measures,” it said.
The letter was sent to Sir Nicholas Winterton, the chairman of the group.
“We highly approve and welcome supports from our friends,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesman Henry Chen (陳銘政) said yesterday.
The positive feedback, Chen said, shows that the international community — including a public statement from the US and EU — approves of Taiwan’s pragmatic approach to the issue.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
Taiwanese singer Jay Chou (周杰倫) plans to take to the courts of the Australian Open for the first time as a competitor in the high-stakes 1 Point Slam. The Australian Open yesterday afternoon announced the news on its official Instagram account, welcoming Chou — who celebrates his 47th birthday on Sunday — to the star-studded lineup of the tournament’s signature warm-up event. “From being the King of Mandarin Pop filling stadiums with his music to being Kato from The Green Hornet and now shifting focus to being a dedicated tennis player — welcome @jaychou to the 1 Point Slam and #AusOpen,” the
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