The office of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday announced belt-tightening measures and asked for public donations to sustain its daily operations until February after a recent amendment revoked Chen’s perks as a former head of state.
Chen Sung-shan (陳淞山), manager of Chen’s office, said it would continue to operate despite the financial difficulty. To sustain the NT$540,000 (US$16,800) monthly expenses, he said the office would implement austerity measures to cut costs.
The five office employees have agreed to a salary cut of 20 percent and the Neo Formosa Weekly magazine will become a biweekly publication, he said.
PHOTO: CNA
BOOK REVENUE
They also hoped to raise some money when the office launches a book written by the former president.
Chen Sung-shan urged the public to make donations of small amounts, saying they hoped to raise NT$4 million to finance daily operations until February. If things did not go well, he said he was willing to borrow money with his own credit.
Since the “one country on each side of the Taiwan Strait alliance” has 35 members standing in the November elections, Chen Sung-shan said he was confident that between 80 percent and 90 percent of them would be elected and then they could address the funding problem.
The legislature on Aug. 19 passed an amendment to the Act Governing Preferential Treatment for Retired Presidents and Vice Presidents (卸任總統副總統禮遇條例) introduced by the KMT caucus.
The amendment stipulates that former presidents and vice presidents will be stripped of courtesy treatment, including their monthly allowance and annual expenses, if convicted by a court of grave offenses, such as sedition or graft.
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
The Republic of China Army Command yesterday relieved Kinmen Defense Battalion commander after authorities indicted the officer on charges connected to using methamphetamine. The Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Wednesday detained Colonel He (何) after the Coast Guard linked him to drug shipments and proceeded to charge him yesterday for using and possessing crystal meth. The man was released on a NT$50,000 bail and banned from leaving Kinmen, the office said. Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Chen Chien-yi (陳建義) told a news conference yesterday that He has been removed and another officer is taking over the unit as the acting commander. The military
RSS