About 100,000 Taiwanese businesspeople working in China are to return home to vote in this month’s elections, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chen Ming-tong (陳明通) said yesterday.
The number is consistent with previous years, but in light of China’s deliberate attempts to interfere with this year’s election, the council is monitoring the situation and urging Beijing to respect Taiwan’s democracy, Chen told the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee in Taipei.
The committee invited representatives from the Ministry of the Interior, the Investigation Bureau and the National Police Agency to report on efforts to assist Taiwanese returning home to vote, and to maintain social order ahead of the elections.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
Despite the troubled state of cross-strait relations, China and Taiwan are still adhering to air and sea transit agreements, and are still honoring the “small three links,” a meeting report said.
The “small three links” refer to commercial, transportation and postal exchanges between Kinmen, Matsu and China’s coastal cities.
The air transit agreements allow up to 890 direct flights between the two countries per week, with about 560 weekly flights currently in operation.
Taiwanese returning home for the elections could also transfer through Hong Kong or Macau, the report said.
No reports have been received by the council, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, or the Straits Exchange Foundation regarding difficulties purchasing tickets to return home from China, the council said, adding that airlines have also not needed to add flights to meet demand.
Regarding funds flowing into the country to buy votes and influence the elections, the council said that investigators are prioritizing cases involving money transfers from China and other overseas sources.
Beijing must come to grips with the differences between China and Taiwan, and learn to accept that its attempts to influence Taiwan’s democracy and rule of law would be futile, it said.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
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