China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) Chairman Chen Deming (陳德銘) yesterday arrived in Taiwan for a seven-day visit.
Chen headed to the Taichung-based Tachia Chenlan Temple on arrival, which is dedicated to Matsu, goddess of the sea, a Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) official said.
Chen is to visit Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung, Yilan, Hsinchu, Miaoli and Nantou.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
The main purpose of the trip is to engage with Taiwanese in grassroots communities and promote cross-strait cultural, economic and trade policies, the official said.
Separately yesterday, a meeting was held with SEF Vice Chairman Shih Hui-fen (施惠芬) and ARATS Deputy Chairman Zheng Lizhong (鄭立中) to review the results of agreements signed by the two organizations.
At a press briefing in Taipei, Zheng denied that only large companies benefit from the pacts.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
“No trade or economic activities can create equal benefits for all people, but the overall economy can see spill-over effects, such as job creation and tax revenue growth,” he said.
When asked about actions taken by ARATS after the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, on Oct. 22 published a report on 15 government agencies and state-owned enterprises including the Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO), Zheng said that there was illegal solicitation of funding among organizations tasked with handling cross-strait affairs.
“Problems such as soliciting sponsorship do exist,” Zheng said.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
The report said the TAO is soft on officials that are found to have violated regulations and has poor supervision of organizations under its umbrella.
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
RSS