Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lin (林永樂) yesterday shrugged off Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s (李顯龍) concerns that Taiwan would be left stranded in the event of a cross-strait conflict, saying that there is no such problem.
Lin made the remarks on the sidelines of an international law forum on South China Sea disputes at Soochow University in Taipei, which was attended by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and dozens of academics.
“There is no such problem. We will do our utmost to [promote Taiwan’s] international status,” Lin said when asked to comment on remarks Lee made in an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Mar. 29 during a visit to the US, the transcript of which was shared by the prime minister on Facebook on Wednesday.
Lin said Ma has endeavored to promote Taiwan’s roles as a peacemaker and a provider of humanitarian aid in the international arena and to assuage tensions in the South China Sea.
“All of these are positive developments,” said Lin, who has been at the center of media attention in the past few days following Kenya’s forced deportation of 45 Taiwanese to Beijing on Friday last week and on Tuesday.
The incident has fueled anti-China sentiment in Taiwan and raised concerns that it could cause cross-strait ties to run aground.
In the lengthy interview, Lee expressed hope that progress made across the Taiwan Strait under the Ma administration would be maintained and broadened by the incoming Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government.
However, Lee voiced concern over the growing consciousness of a Taiwanese identity in recent years, which he said could constrain what any Taiwanese leader would be able to.
“At the same time, I think Taiwanese fully understand that if they collide with China, they will be on their own,” said Lee, who reportedly played a facilitating role in the meeting between Ma and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Singapore in November last year.
Lee said that should Taiwan opt for independence, it would not have the support of the US.
“At least the previous [US] administrations made their position very clear,” he added.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
RSS