President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday defended the proposal to establish representative offices for the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) in China and for the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) in Taiwan, adding that the two sides would not unfurl national flags at such offices.
“There will be no national flags or other kinds of flags designed to specify cross-strait relations inside or outside the offices because we are not foreign nations to each other,” he said yesterday during an interview with the Chinese-language United Evening News.
Ma said the services offered by the representative offices would include handling travel documents, but visa issuance would not be performed.
The Mainland Affairs Council said Taiwan plans to set up three representative offices in China and is unlikely to allow Beijing to set up 10 offices in Taiwan for now. The two sides will continue to negotiate the number of offices on each side, the council said.
The establishment of the cross-strait representative offices has drawn criticism from the opposition camp. Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers said that the move could damage the nation’s sovereignty, adding that China could use the offices as a channel for intelligence gathering in Taiwan.
Mainland Affairs Council Minister Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) reiterated that Taiwan’s offices in China would solely deal with consular affairs and protecting Taiwanese residing in the country.
Ma said that the government would adhere to the Constitution in establishing the representative offices.
Proponents of the move say that while the government will not acknowledge the existence of China as an independent nation, it cannot deny the government on the other side as an authority with governing rights.
The say the opening of SEF and ARATS offices is in line with Ma’s China policy and is aimed at enhancing cross-strait ties.
Authorities are 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 from both sides of the Taiwan Strait, in relation with the proposed offices.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
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
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
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