President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday once again played up the notion of the nation’s soft power, saying its pavilion at the World Expo in Shanghai had helped to reduce tensions in the Taiwan Strait and prevent war.
“Nobody would want to start a war after visiting the Shanghai World Expo — that’s very clear,” he said, twice mistakenly referring to the World Expo as the Flora Expo before correcting himself. “The exercise of Taiwan’s soft power has definitely had a positive effect on the world.”
The nation’s soft power was the main reason the EU recently decided to grant visa-waiver privileges to Republic of China (ROC) passport holders, Ma said while meeting a delegation of Taiwanese that had just returned from the World Expo.
When the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was in power, ROC passport holders enjoyed visa-free entry to only 53 countries, Ma said. During his presidency, eight more countries and regions had offered visa-waiver treatment before the EU also added Taiwan to its list.
Ma said he expected to see more countries include ROC passport holders in their visa-waiver programs next year and hoped to see the number reach 100 next year when the 100th anniversary of the founding of the ROC is to be celebrated.
Meanwhile, Presidential Office Spokesman Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) dismissed allegations by an Internet user that Ma was selling out Taiwan and asked that he produce proof to substantiate his claims.
Lo, who has just launched his own Facebook page, was responding to a post left on his wall by a man calling himself Henry An (安亨利), in which he accused Ma of selling out Taiwan.
In a 2,000-word response, Lo asked An to prove how Ma was selling out Taiwan and called the accusation “defamatory.”
“President Ma has lived in Taiwan for more than 60 years and Taiwan is his home,” Lo wrote. “If Mr An does not sell out his hometown, why should the president? I am also born and bred in Taiwan. I cannot think of any reason why I would help someone sell out Taiwan.”
Ma, who was born in Hong Kong, moved to Taiwan with his family when he was aged one.
Comparing the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration with that of the DPP, which was in power from 2000 to 2008, Lo said Taiwan lost six diplomatic allies when the DPP was in power. Under Ma, the country has maintained solid relations with its 23 allied countries and 43 countries or regions have granted ROC passport holders visa-waiver privileges since Ma came to office, he said.
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
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
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
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
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