Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said yesterday he would meet with Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) next week to discuss the gift of two pandas to Taipei City.
Hau refused to confirm the date of the meeting when asked whether he would accompany former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Lien Chan (連戰) on a visit to the ARATS leader.
The Chinese-language United Daily News reported that Lien would meet Chen on Thursday during a ceremony to formally announce that Beijing will send the two giant pandas it had promised to the Taipei City Zoo.
Lien would represent Taiwan in accepting the two pandas, the paper said.
The zoo would give Beijing Formosan sika deer and Formosan serow in return, the newspaper said.
Hau said the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and ARATS were arranging the meeting and Chen might visit the zoo.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City councilors condemned Hau for pandering to China and Chen, and helping the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) by refusing to grant rally permits to the DPP in front of the Grand Hotel on Thursday and Friday.
Taipei City Police Department Commissioner Hung Sheng-kung (洪勝坤) said the department refused the DPP a rally permit to prevent clashes.
DPP Taipei City Councilor Chuang Ruei-hsiung (莊瑞雄) said that he would lead more than 100 supporters to protest against Chen by hiking to the rear of the hotel to light firecrackers as a protest.
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
ANNUAL EVENT: Two massive Pokemon balloons are to be set up in Daan Park, with an event zone operating from 10am to 6pm This year’s Taipei Floral Picnic is to be held at Daan Park today and tomorrow, featuring an exclusive Pokemon Go event, a themed food market, a coffee rave picnic area and stage performances, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said yesterday. Two massive Pokemon balloons are to be set up in the park as attractions, with an exclusive event zone operating from 10am to 6pm, it said. Participants who complete designated tasks on-site would have a chance to receive limited-edition souvenirs, it added. People could also try the newly launched game Pokemon Pokopia in the trial area, the department said. Three PokeStops are
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
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