Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) caucus whip Hsu Chung-hin (許忠信) yesterday held a press conference accusing President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration of pandering to China, saying that Taiwan should focus on connecting with other nations instead of being wedded to China.
Hsu said that the Ma administration’s pro-China tilt could be seen clearly from the budget proposals submitted for the next fiscal year, pointing to the NT$8.2 million (US$277,200) allotted by the Ministry of Culture for travel to China, which includes funds to inspect characteristics of Chinese non-governmental organizations (NGO) and how they developed.
Hsu said that China is governed by a communist government and could have no “normal” NGOs, adding that he failed to see why the government needed to spend money inspecting pro-communist NGOs and how they worked.
Hsu also said that the National Police Agency (NPA) had budgeted NT$7.4 million for travel funds in returning Chinese criminals, as per the Agreement on Jointly Cracking Down on Crime and Mutual Legal Assistance Across the Strait (海峽兩岸共同打擊犯罪及司法互助協議), saying since the agreement took effect in June 2011, only one person, the former Bamboo Union member Chang An-le (張安樂), had been returned to Taiwan.
However, Chang returned of his own volition, instead of being repatriated by either Taiwanese or Chinese police forces, so the agency’s budget allocation was absurd, Hsu said.
The Institute of Nuclear Research submitted a budget of NT$2.7 million, of which NT$2.4 was to be spent on travel to China to inspect third-generation nuclear power plants and how the plants planned their energy models, he said.
Asking if the center of global nuclear research had shifted to China, Hsu said the institute’s plan — an eight-day tour costing NT$800,000 — was outrageous and appeared to be little more than a group tour in the guise of an inspection.
Response to Hsu’s comments, Fang Yen-pin (方衍濱) the deputy chief of the ministry’s department of general planning, said the ministry had kept cost-cutting principles in mind when drafting its budget.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching