Starting today, Academia Historica is to begin enforcing access restrictions to its collections and records to prohibit access by Chinese, Academia Historica director and historian Wu Mi-cha (吳密察) said.
Wu said that access would be granted after application in accordance with the law, which requires that the applicant is a Republic of China national — a restriction stipulated by the Freedom of Government Information Act (政府資訊公開法).
Wu said that some of the documents are confidential and that is why access is restricted.
A number of laws and policies govern access to the records, such as the Freedom of Government Information Act, the Archives Act (檔案法), the Personal Information Protection Act (個人資料保護法), the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法) and the Presidential and Vice Presidential Records and Artifacts Act (總統副總統文物管理條例), Wu said.
Wu said that people used to be granted immediate access to documents on arrival, allowing them to read and copy documents on the spot, adding that on appointment to his position he realized that the unimpeded access was illegal.
“Given that the documents stored at Academia Historica potentially contain national secrets as well as personal information, it is necessary to evaluate a document before it is made public. We will implement a 15-day approval period, in accordance with National Archives Administration policy. We will be practical in our approach and in some instances access decisions might be made in one day,” he said.
Wu said that some changes in the policy would be beneficial, such as plans to scrap half-document limits on printing, limits to the number of documents that can be printed in one year and the introduction of a service to have documents printed and mailed.
Wu said that while access to Chinese would not be granted, he hoped that there could eventually be a “reciprocal records access agreement” with the Second Historical Archives of China in Nanjing.
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
Instead of threatening tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, the US should try to reinforce cooperation with Taiwan on semiconductor development to take on challenges from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), a Taiwanese think tank said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose across-the-board import duties of 32 percent on Taiwan-made goods and levy a separate tariff on semiconductors, which Taiwan is hoping to avoid. The Research Institute for Democracy, Society, and Emerging Technology (DSET), a National Science and Technology Council think tank, said that US efforts should focus on containing China’s semiconductor rise rather than impairing Taiwan. “Without
An SOS message in a bottle has been found in Ireland that is believed to have come from the Taiwanese captain of fishing vessel Yong Yu Sing No. 18 (永裕興18號), who has been missing without a trace for over four years, along with nine Indonesian crew members. The vessel, registered to Suao (蘇澳), went missing near Hawaii on Dec. 30, 2020. The ship has since been recovered, but the 10 crew members have never been found. The captain, surnamed Lee (李), is believed to have signed the note with his name. A post appeared on Reddit on Tuesday after a man
RSS