Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) officials will be dispatched to the Straits Exchange Foundation’s (SEF) offices in China, as the two organizations work together to strengthen cross-strait development, MAC Minister Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said yesterday.
The SEF and its Chinese counterpart, the Association for Relations across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), have reached a consensus following a meeting last month to set up offices on each side of the Strait, with the foundation preferring Chinese cities where the majority of Taiwanese businesspeople and students are based.
As China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) and the ARATS have always worked together while being two different government bodies, the TAO will also send officials to the ARATs’ office in Taiwan, he said.
“Officials from the Mainland Affairs Council and the Straits Exchange Foundation are from different organizations, but we will work together in the same SEF offices in China … The cross-strait offices will still function under the titles of the Straits Exchange Foundation and the ARATS, and are not offices set up by the governments of the two sides [of the strait],” Wang said yesterday during a press conference.
The opening of SEF-ARATS offices is in line with President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) China policy and is aimed at enhancing cross-strait ties.
The government is reviewing the Act Governing Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), which governs legal matters between people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
Wang yesterday stressed that the Ma administration’s policy of promoting cross-strait relations under the so-called “1992 consensus,” and said that the dispatch of Taiwan Affairs Office and Mainland Affairs Council officials to reciprocal offices should not create the impression that the two governments are promoting cross-strait development under nation-to-nation relations.
The Mainland Affairs Council will invite the SEF and other government bodies to establish a task force this year to facilitate the opening of the offices on each side of the Taiwan Strait, he said.
TRAFFIC SAFETY RULES: A positive result in a drug test would result in a two-year license suspension for the driver and vehicle, and a fine of up to NT$180,000 The Ministry of Transportation and Communications is to authorize police to conduct roadside saliva tests by the end of the year to deter people from driving while under the influence of narcotics, it said yesterday. The ministry last month unveiled a draft of amended regulations governing traffic safety rules and penalties, which included provisions empowering police to conduct mandatory saliva tests on drivers. While currently rules authorize police to use oral fluid testing kits for signs of drug use, they do not establish penalties for noncompliance or operating procedures for officers to follow, the ministry said. The proposed changes to the regulations require
Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan would issue a decision at 8pm on whether to cancel work and school tomorrow due to forecasted heavy rain, Keelung Mayor Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said today. Hsieh told reporters that absent some pressing reason, the four northern cities would announce the decision jointly at 8pm. Keelung is expected to receive between 300mm and 490mm of rain in the period from 2pm today through 2pm tomorrow, Central Weather Administration data showed. Keelung City Government regulations stipulate that school and work can be canceled if rain totals in mountainous or low-elevation areas are forecast to exceed 350mm in
The Executive Yuan yesterday announced that registration for a one-time universal NT$10,000 cash handout to help people in Taiwan survive US tariffs and inflation would start on Nov. 5, with payouts available as early as Nov. 12. Who is eligible for the handout? Registered Taiwanese nationals are eligible, including those born in Taiwan before April 30 next year with a birth certificate. Non-registered nationals with residence permits, foreign permanent residents and foreign spouses of Taiwanese citizens with residence permits also qualify for the handouts. For people who meet the eligibility requirements, but passed away between yesterday and April 30 next year, surviving family members
1.4nm WAFERS: While TSMC is gearing up to expand its overseas production, it would also continue to invest in Taiwan, company chairman and CEO C.C. Wei said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) has applied for permission to construct a new plant in the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區), which it would use for the production of new high-speed wafers, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council, which supervises three major science parks in Taiwan, confirmed that the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau had received an application on Friday from TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, to commence work on the new A14 fab. A14 technology, a 1.4 nanometer (nm) process, is designed to drive artificial intelligence transformation by enabling faster computing and greater power
RSS