The National Archives Administration has proposed an amendment to the Presidential and Vice Presidential Records and Artifacts Act (總統副總統文物管理條例) to clear out thousands of records and gifts taking up space in its warehouse.
Academia Historica, which is tasked with managing presidential and vice presidential records and artifacts, said it has drafted a revision to the act, which was promulgated in January 2004.
The proposed amendment, which is pending legislative review, stipulates that presidential and vice presidential gifts “be classified and then be written off from the inventory for disposal or given away to museums, other government agencies or charity organizations,” Academia Historica said.
Photo: CNA
The act stipulates that gifts worth more than NT$3,000 given to presidents and vice presidents during their tenures have to be turned over to the national archive.
There are more than 12,000 gifts in the archive’s storage, Academia Historica said.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) received about 6,000 gifts during his eight-year tenure from 2008 to last year, and his predecessor, Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), received about 4,000 gifts, Academia Historica’s collection division chief Hsu Hsiu-jung (許秀容) said.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has received 117 gifts within 42 days of taking office on May 20 last year, Hsu added.
Items gifted to Tsai include a painting of an eagle named after herself and an air purifier for the cat-loving president, Hsu said.
Some of the gifts cannot be stored for long periods of time because they would decay, Hsu said, adding that in such a situation, the cost of preserving them would be higher than the benefit of keeping them.
For example, a leopard fur Ma received from Swaziland is beyond the institute’s professional ability to maintain for a long time, Hsu said.
There should be regulations that allow Academia Historica to determine whether presidential and vice presidential gifts are worthy of long-term storage, Hsu said.
If not, the national archive should have the right to dispose of them, she added.
The gifts are considered national property and cannot be sold, but can be given to museums for exhibition, to groups advocating socially disadvantaged people or to government agencies that might have use of them.
However, if seriously damaged, the items would be destroyed, Hsu said, referring to a clause in the proposed amendment.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai