Kinmen County Commissioner Li Wo-shi (李沃士) on Friday asked Fujian Province Chinese Communist Party Secretary You Quan (尤權) to help secure a drop in price for the water that Kinmen plans to buy from the Chinese province during the official’s visit.
Li made the request at a briefing by Kinmen County Waterworks Director Wang Teng-wei (王登緯) on the progress of a plan aimed at resolving the county’s chronic water shortages by channeling water across the Taiwan Strait.
The briefing was organized for You, who flew from Taiwan proper to Kinmen earlier in the day. Kinmen was the last stop of You’s five-day tour of Taiwan, which started on Monday.
Wang said Kinmen has been working on buying water from China for nearly 20 years. Last year, two intermediary bodies of the respective sides reached an agreement on the issue, he said.
Now the only matters that need to be addressed are the price of the water and the construction of pipes that will connect China’s Longhu Reservoir and Kinmen’s Tienpu Reservoir, Wang said.
However, Fujian’s water supplier has set the price at nearly 2 yuan (US$0.30) per 1,000 liters of water and the county government hopes that figure can be lowered, Wang said.
You declined to answer media queries about the issue.
The visit was You’s first to the country and his presence has drawn media attention because Fujian is the Chinese province designated by Beijing as the test spot for its Taiwan policy, meaning that any plans to promote cross-strait exchanges are first carried out in Fujian.
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
President William Lai (賴清德) has appointed former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) to attend the late Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican City on Saturday on his behalf, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today. The Holy See announced Francis’ funeral would take place on Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square. The ministry expressed condolences over Francis’ passing and said that Chen would represent Taiwan at the funeral and offer condolences in person. Taiwan and the Vatican have a long-standing and close diplomatic relationship, the ministry said. Both sides agreed to have Chen represent Taiwan at the funeral, given his Catholic identity and
RSS