The Cabinet yesterday expressed reservations over a request by hot spring resort operators in Kaohsiung County for government compensation for losses caused by Typhoon Morakot.
Lo Shih-hsiung (羅世雄), chief secretary of the Executive Yuan’s post-Typhoon Morakot Reconstruction Committee, said requests for government compensation must go through the courts.
Lo also urged resort operators in the Baolai hot spring area of Liouguei Township (六龜) to reconsider their plans to rebuild damaged facilities on the original sites. The increased probability of severe flooding as a result of global warming has made the area unsafe for development projects, Lo said.
The Tourism Bureau is expected to meet the Council for Economic Planning and Development and the Kaohsiung County Government sometime soon to discuss whether to restrict development in the area and whether to help hot spring owners apply for bailout loans, Lo said.
The official made the remarks during a meeting with operators of resorts in Baolai, some of which had been operating without business licenses and now hope to be legalized.
These include the Hsin Pao Lai Hot Spring Resort, which suffered losses of NT$670 million, and the Fun Chen Resort Hotel, which suffered losses of NT$65.6 million.
Lin Kuo-bao (林國寶), chairman of Hsin Pao Lai, said the operators should be entitled to government compensation because the flooding that devastated the hot spring area may have been caused by a public infrastructure project — construction to divert water to the Zengwun Reservoir.
Wu Chiu-lin (吳秋霖), chairman of Fun Chen, said the unlicensed operators had received government guidance for more than six years in preparation for their legalization and should therefore be eligible for the government’s post-Morakot tourism sector bailout program.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
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
RSS