The Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) could reconsider its decision to temporarily suspend the hiring of new Filipino workers, depending on the attitude of a visiting Philippine envoy toward the diplomatic dispute that triggered the move, the council minister said yesterday, Council of Labor Affairs Minister Jennifer Wang (王如玄) said yesterday.
Wang said any review of the measure to more tightly screen Filipino workers applying to work in Taiwan would consider many factors, including the message and goodwill brought by envoy Manuel Roxas, who is expected to arrive in Taipei today.
Roxas is visiting Taiwan to try to ease tensions between Taipei and Manila that were sparked when the Philippines deported 14 Taiwanese fraud suspects to China on Feb. 2, an act condemned by Taiwan as an infringement of its sovereignty and a violation of legal practice.
The council responded on Feb. 8 by lengthening the application process for Filipinos wanting to work in Taiwan to four months, from the previous seven to 12 days, effectively freezing the hiring of Filipinos by local companies.
The Philippines’ respect for Taiwan as a country and ongoing communications between Taipei and Manila on crime will also be factors in the review, Wang said.
Asked if it was fair to sanction Manila by restricting opportunities for migrant workers, Wang said there was no other alternative, including economic sanctions, that would not have affected the interests of Filipino workers.
Beijing could eventually see a full amphibious invasion of Taiwan as the only "prudent" way to bring about unification, the US Department of Defense said in a newly released annual report to Congress. The Pentagon's "Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China 2025," was in many ways similar to last year’s report but reorganized the analysis of the options China has to take over Taiwan. Generally, according to the report, Chinese leaders view the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) capabilities for a Taiwan campaign as improving, but they remain uncertain about its readiness to successfully seize
Taiwan is getting a day off on Christmas for the first time in 25 years. The change comes after opposition parties passed a law earlier this year to add or restore five public holidays, including Constitution Day, which falls on today, Dec. 25. The day marks the 1947 adoption of the constitution of the Republic of China, as the government in Taipei is formally known. Back then the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) governed China from Nanjing. When the KMT, now an opposition party in Taiwan, passed the legislation on holidays, it said that they would help “commemorate the history of national development.” That
Taiwan has overtaken South Korea this year in per capita income for the first time in 23 years, IMF data showed. Per capita income is a nation’s GDP divided by the total population, used to compare average wealth levels across countries. Taiwan also beat Japan this year on per capita income, after surpassing it for the first time last year, US magazine Newsweek reported yesterday. Across Asia, Taiwan ranked fourth for per capita income at US$37,827 this year due to sustained economic growth, the report said. In the top three spots were Singapore, Macau and Hong Kong, it said. South
Snow fell on Yushan (Jade Mountain, 玉山) yesterday morning as a continental cold air mass sent temperatures below freezing on Taiwan’s tallest peak, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Snowflakes were seen on Yushan’s north peak from 6:28am to 6:38am, but they did not fully cover the ground and no accumulation was recorded, the CWA said. As of 7:42am, the lowest temperature recorded across Taiwan was minus-5.5°C at Yushan’s Fengkou observatory and minus-4.7°C at the Yushan observatory, CWA data showed. On Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County, a low of 1.3°C was recorded at 6:39pm, when ice pellets fell at Songsyue Lodge (松雪樓), a
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