TOURISM
E-visas boost tourism
A free electronic visa application service for Hong Kong and Macau visitors has helped boost tourism figures in Taiwan, the National Immigration Agency said yesterday. As of yesterday, 1,202,523 Hong Kong or Macau travelers had visited Taiwan on e-visas since the new system was launched Sept. 1, 2010, according to agency statistics. In 2009, when there was no e-visa service and the visa-handling fee was NT$300 (US$10), 488,496 travelers from the two regions visited Taiwan, the statistics showed. The number of visitors grew to 606,293 in 2010 and 696,657 last year, the agency said. Despite a loss of NT$90 million in application fees, the growth in visitor numbers benefited the local economy, with each traveler spending an average of NT$28,000 during a stay that lasted four days on average, it added.
TRADE
TIFA talks urged
Taiwan’s representative office in the US has asked the US to resume long-stalled trade talks after the legislature passed an amendment to a food safety act to relax a ban on imports of US beef containing ractopamine residue. The representative office called the Office of the US Trade Representative to convey the hope that long-stalled talks could be restarted on the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA). The talks have been stalled since 2007 due to the beef dispute. “Taiwan hopes talks can be resumed as soon as possible to further Taiwan-US trade relations and create favorable conditions for Taiwan to integrate into regional trade and economy,” an official with the office said. US officials have repeatedly said that the beef dispute was the only hurdle hindering a resumption of the talks.
DIPLOMACY
Diaoyutai concerns raised
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said it has conveyed its concern to Japan over reported plans to nationalize the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) in the East China Sea, and has reiterated Taiwan’s sovereignty over the island group. Following reports that Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said his administration planned to acquire some of the islands from private owners, Taiwan’s representative office in Japan expressed its concern to the Japanese government about such a development, the ministry said. Taiwan has asked Japan to refrain from such action, as it would compromise relations between them, said Su Qi-cheng (蘇啟誠), deputy secretary-general of the ministry’s Association of East Asia Relations. Su said he would seek confirmation with Taiwan’s representative office of reports that Japanese lawmakers are planning to visit the Diaoyutais to demonstrate their country’s sovereignty over the island group.
TRAVEL
Bosnia now visa-free
The visa-exemption privileges granted by the government of Bosnia-Herzegovina to Republic of China passport holders has taken effect, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday. Under the visa-free agreement that became effective on Tuesday, Taiwanese can now stay in the Balkan state for up to 90 days within a six-month period without a visa, the ministry said in statement. The new visa waiver arrangement, which was decided last month, is expected to further promote bilateral exchanges in areas such as trade, culture and technology, the statement added. Bosnia-Herzegovina is the 128th country or region to grant Taiwanese visa-free entry or landing visa privileges.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods