TOURISM
Taiwan-Japan travel surges
Travel between Taiwan and Japan is expected to reach about 4 million tourists by the end of the year, based on the current momentum, the Tourism Bureau said yesterday. The number of Japanese visitors to Taiwan has continued to soar, despite the depreciation of the Japanese yen and that country’s sales-tax increase, which has affected its outbound travel, tourism official Cheng Yi-ping (鄭憶萍) said. According to the bureau’s statistics, 1.04 million Japanese visited Taiwan in the first eight months of the year, a 17.95 percent year-on-year increase. Meanwhile, about 2 million Taiwanese tourists traveled to Japan in the same period, about 25 percent more than in the same period last year, Cheng said. Tourism authorities on both sides are optimistic about an annual goal of 4 million mutual visits this year and 5 million in the near future, she said.
TRANSPORTATION
Kinmen links assessed
A proposal by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications to establish marine links that pass waters near Taiwan’s outlying Kinmen County will depend on a national security assessment, Minister of Transportation and Communications Yeh Kuang-shih (葉匡時) said yesterday. The proposed opening of the Liuwudian Channel to connect the deep-water Liuwudian Harbor in China’s southeastern Xiamen City and Taiwan will need to be appraised by national defense officials, Yeh said in response to lawmakers’ questions in the Legislature. Opposition Legislator Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津) said the ministry’s plan to open the narrow channel to Chinese shippers could threaten Taiwan’s national security. However, Yeh Kuang-shih said the shipping route would not be opened at the expense of national safety.
POLITICS
Election neutrality urged
Examination Yuan President Wu Jin-lin (伍錦霖) yesterday called for neutrality before the Nov. 29 elections for mayors and local representatives, which have been called Taiwan’s mid-term elections because they are expected to set the stage for the 2016 presidential and legislative elections. Examination Yuan Secretary-General Lee Jih-shyuan (李繼玄) said between 700,000 and 800,000 civil servants across the country have taken courses on administrative neutrality and are familiar with the principle of keeping administrative duties independent from political leanings. The Ministry of Civil Service under the Examination Yuan issued a notice to government agencies on Sept. 29 to abide by neutrality rules. Among these, it is “not appropriate” for civil servants to connect to social media such as Facebook or Plurk during office hours or using office equipment, the ministry said.
DIPLOMACY
Panama’s first lady visits
Panama’s first lady Lorena Isabel Castillo de Varela is seeking to learn more about Taiwan’s social welfare programs during her six-day visit for National Day celebrations, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. In line with her interests, Castillo de Varela yesterday was accompanied by Taiwan’s first lady, Chow Mei-ching (周美青), on a visit to a care center for the elderly and is also to pay a visit to the Sunshine Social Welfare Foundation, both in Taipei, the ministry said. “Panama’s first lady is dedicated to caring for the impoverished, the elderly and children, and has set up an office to help those groups,” Department of Latin American and Caribbean Affairs spokesman Antonio Yeh (葉德貴) said. “She therefore wanted to see how welfare facilities here are run and to learn from the Taiwan experience.”
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard