President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday said he hopes Chinese students studying in Taiwan can be included in the National Health Insurance (NHI) system as soon as possible.
“[We] should act like a civilized nation,” in which Chinese students can enjoy the same treatment as Taiwanese, Ma said at a meeting at Chinese Youth International, a Taipei-based civil group devoted to the interactions of young people in Taiwan and overseas in various fields.
Whether to include Chinese students in Taiwan’s NHI system has been a controversial issue hotly debated among lawmakers, with opponents arguing that such a proposal could increase the financial burden on the system.
As a result, an amendment proposed by the Executive Yuan in 2012 to include Chinese students in the NHI system has been shelved at the legislature.
Ma said that offering Chinese students health insurance coverage would help both the students and the insurance system, as the students would likely consume few medical resources, but still have to pay an insurance fee of more than NT$600 each month.
Ma yesterday also said that he told Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) when they met in November last year that the “one China, different interpretations” principle would not evolve into “two Chinas,” “one China, one Taiwan,” or “Taiwan’s independence.”
It is “one China, different interpretations,” instead of “one China, random interpretations,” Ma said, after the controversial “one China, common interpretation” (一中同表) formula was criticized in Saturday’s debate among candidates running in the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairmanship by-election.
Ma also said that “one China” refers to the Republic of China under the Constitution, and the two sides maintain the “status quo” of not seeking unification or independence and not using force against each other, he added.
A preclearance service to facilitate entry for people traveling to select airports in Japan would be available from Thursday next week to Feb. 25 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said on Tuesday. The service was first made available to Taiwanese travelers throughout the winter vacation of 2024 and during the Lunar New Year holiday. In addition to flights to the Japanese cities of Hakodate, Asahikawa, Akita, Sendai, Niigata, Okayama, Takamatsu, Kumamoto and Kagoshima, the service would be available to travelers to Kobe and Oita. The service can be accessed by passengers of 15 flight routes operated by
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GIVE AND TAKE: Blood demand continues to rise each year, while fewer young donors are available due to the nation’s falling birthrate, a doctor said Blood donors can redeem points earned from donations to obtain limited edition Formosan black bear travel mugs, the Kaohsiung Blood Center said yesterday, as it announced a goal of stocking 20,000 units of blood prior to the Lunar New Year. The last month of the lunar year is National Blood Donation Month, when local centers seek to stockpile blood for use during the Lunar New Year holiday. The blood demand in southern Taiwan — including Tainan and Kaohsiung, as well as Chiayi, Pingtung, Penghu and Taitung counties — is about 2,000 units per day, the center said. The donation campaign aims to boost
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