Collectively initiated by various activists with the aim of pushing for political reform, the Taiwan Citizen Union (公民組合) has finally been approved by the Ministry of the Interior, following several rejections.
Posting a picture of the approval letter from the ministry on its Facebook page, the group announced that it has finally been approved by the ministry and that it would soon be holding a meeting to elect its president.
The new group was initiated by more than two dozen activists, including former Judicial Reform Foundation chief executive director Lin Feng-cheng (林峰正), Taiwan Rural Front president Hsu Shih-jung (徐世榮), Taiwan Rural Front secretary-general Frida Tsai (蔡培慧), writer Michael Lin (林世煜) and Academia Sinica associate researcher Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌).
“[Former Democratic Progressive Party chairman] Lin I-hsiung [林義雄] was behind the founding of the group, but he will not be involved in the operations of the group,” co-founder Lin Feng-cheng said. “The group’s objectives are to create a better and fairer society through political participation and reform.”
As a social organization, it will not be able to nominate candidates in elections, but can recommend candidates to run as independents.
Previously, the group accused the ministry of trying to block the group’s founding by turning down their applications, saying that the words “Republic of China (ROC)” or “Taiwan” should be included in the group’s full name.
The ministry denied that accusation yesterday.
“We didn’t turn down the applications, we merely wanted to make the recommendation that the group include ‘ROC’ or ‘Taiwan’ in its full name, since that’s what most other groups do,” Department of Cooperative and Civil Associations Director Weng Wen-te (翁文德) said.
“It’s only a recommendation, there’s no law saying they must do so, it’s a fundamental right for people to decide the name of their organization,” Weng said.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS