Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) yesterday urged President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration to ensure mutual respect and be discreet when granting visa-waiver privileges to other countries, as he embarked on a trip to Southeast Asia that has been overshadowed by visa application difficulties.
Wu made the remarks at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport before leaving for the Philippines on a seven-day trip that is to also take him to Thailand.
Wu was on Friday forced to cancel the Thailand leg of his trip, after failing to secure a visa that he had applied for two weeks ago.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
However, in an unexpected turn of events, the Thai government decided to issue visa shortly after the KMT announced the cancelation.
“I am not saying that we should not grant visa-free status to nations friendly toward us, but we must be cautious and discreet and have a good grasp of the local situation first,” Wu said.
Citing the US as an example, Wu said that Taiwan had endeavored for a long time to secure visa-free privileges from Washington, but the nation was not able to fulfill all the criteria until 2011, when he was premier.
Taiwan was the 37th nation to be granted the treatment, but only one country has managed to obtain the same privilege since then, Wu said, praising the US’ high standards in granting visa-free entry to foreign nationals.
“[It is inappropriate] if Southeast Asian nations hold off on offering us visa-free treatment, but we proceed to grant it to them. There should be reciprocity,” Wu said, in an apparent reference to the Tsai administration’s granting of visa waivers to some of the nations targeted by its New Southbound Policy.
The government initiated a year-long pilot visa-free entry program for Thai and Bruneian nationals in August last year, offering them 30-day visa-free stay in Taiwan. The program was this year extended by one more year, after government statistics showed a significant increase in the number of tourists from the two countries to Taiwan.
Earlier this month, a similar program was launched for Philippine nationals, who are now granted 14-day visa-free stays in Taiwan. Conditional visa-free entry has also been granted to the citizens of Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.
However, the Thai government, for example, requires that Taiwanese nationals apply for a landing visa upon arrival in Thailand, which is valid for 15 days.
There are also allegations that some Thai nationals have taken advantage of the visa waiver program to engage in prostitution in Taiwan.
In response, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Andrew Lee (李憲章) said the government has always conducted a thorough and careful evaluation of other nations’ conditions before granting their citizens visa-free entry.
Violations of the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法) have increased slightly since visa waivers were granted to Southeast Asian nations, but the number of tourists from the region to Taiwan has increased 33 percent between January and September compared with same period last year, Lee said.
“While the programs have benefitted tourism as expected, the ministry has instructed the responsible agencies to pay close attention to law violations to keep our nation safe,” he said.
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
Two Taiwanese prosecutors were questioned by Chinese security personnel at their hotel during a trip to China’s Henan Province this month, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The officers had personal information on the prosecutors, including “when they were assigned to their posts, their work locations and job titles,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said. On top of asking about their agencies and positions, the officers also questioned the prosecutors about the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, a pact that serves as the framework for Taiwan-China cooperation on combating crime and providing judicial assistance, Liang
A group from the Taiwanese Designers in Australia association yesterday represented Taiwan at the Midsumma Pride March in Melbourne. The march, held in the St. Kilda suburb, is the city’s largest LGBTQIA+ parade and the flagship event of the annual Midsumma Festival. It attracted more than 45,000 spectators who supported the 400 groups and 10,000 marchers that participated this year, the association said. Taiwanese Designers said they organized a team to march for Taiwan this year, joining politicians, government agencies, professionals and community organizations in showing support for LGBTQIA+ people and diverse communities. As the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex
MOTIVES QUESTIONED The PLA considers Xi’s policies toward Taiwan to be driven by personal considerations rather than military assessment, the Epoch Times reports Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) latest purge of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) leadership might have been prompted by the military’s opposition to plans of invading Taiwan, the Epoch Times said. The Chinese military opposes waging war against Taiwan by a large consensus, putting it at odds with Xi’s vision, the Falun Gong-affiliated daily said in a report on Thursday, citing anonymous sources with insight into the PLA’s inner workings. The opposition is not the opinion of a few generals, but a widely shared view among the PLA cadre, the Epoch Times cited them as saying. “Chinese forces know full well that
RSS