The Presidential Southern Office in Kaohsiung was inaugurated on Friday as part of President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) campaign to counteract the nation’s north-south divide.
Her administration plans to balance the economic, cultural and political divergence between the north and south, Tsai said at the opening ceremony.
“The government cannot let itself be planted in the north and look at the world from Taipei’s perspective alone,” she said, adding that the office would also be an ideal place to hold meetings and discussions with academics and politicians who hail from the south.
Tsai thanked Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) and her administration for making the office possible.
Chen, who was with Tsai at the inauguration reception, expressed her gratitude to the president on behalf of the people of Kaohsiung.
Tsai’s administration last year proposed setting up a southern office.
In October last year the decision was made to set up the president’s southern office in unused office space on the third floor of the Kaohsiung City Government’s Fengshan Administration Center.
Commenting on concerns that the office might require additional funds or staff, Tsai said that the space was provided for free.
“This office space has been provided free of charge courtesy of the Kaohsiung City Government,” she said.
The office was borrowed from the Kaohsiung City Government to serve as a platform for meetings with politicians and guests in the south, Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang (黃重諺) said.
Another presidential office for central Taiwan is being discussed, Huang said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
A magnitude 4.1 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 2:23pm today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was 5.4 kilometers northeast of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 34.9 km, according to the CWA. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was the highest in Hualien County, where it measured 2 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 1 in Yilan county, Taichung, Nantou County, Changhua County and Yunlin County, the CWA said. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
RSS