President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday said that his administration has dealt with cross-strait relations based on the Republic of China’s Constitution and the nation’s interests, rejecting allegations that his government is “selling out Taiwan.”
By improving cross-strait ties, Taiwan is setting the stage for better relations with other countries as well, Ma told a visiting delegation of Chinese-Americans from the organization Committee of 100.
“We have managed to create a virtuous, not vicious, cycle between cross-strait relations and international affairs,” he said, citing examples such as Taiwan gaining observer status at the World Health Assembly and being invited to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) assembly by ICAO council president Roberto Kobeh Gonzalez.
Warming ties can be seen in the increase in the number of daily flights between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait to 95, a figure that still falls short of demand, he said.
Although there are still many differences that the two sides need to resolve, Ma said his administration hopes to put disputes aside to work toward mutual trust and facilitate peaceful resolutions.
However, Taiwan will keep purchasing defensive weapons from the US to ensure its security, he added.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening 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) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
RSS