ENVIRONMENT
Kentucky scraps straws
US fast-food chain Kentucky Fried Chicken on Tuesday said that it has stopped offering plastic straws at its restaurants in Taiwan. The firm said customers are encouraged to drink from the cup, but those with special needs would be given paper straws upon request. Stainless steel straws would be available for purchase, it added. The decision was made in compliance with the Environmental Protection Administration’s plan to ban the use of plastic straws in venues at government agencies, public and private schools, department stores and shopping malls, as well as fast-food stores, from July 1.
DIPLOMACY
Andrew Lee given Brunei job
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Andrew Lee (李憲章) has been named the nation’s new representative to Brunei, the ministry announced on Tuesday. Lee, 54, who has held the spokesman job since September 2017, is to replace Representative to Brunei William Lin (林維揚), who is to return to the ministry’s headquarters in Taipei. Lee, whose previous overseas posts include New York and London, is to take up his new post in August.
IMMIGRATION
Record number sent home
A total of 268 illegal immigrants were last month sent back to their home countries, the highest number under an amnesty program that was launched at the beginning of the year, the National Immigration Agency said. The program runs until June 30 with the aim of reducing the number of illegal immigrants in the nation, a figure that was approaching 90,000, it said. During the amnesty, illegal immigrants who turn themselves in face a maximum penalty of NT$2,000 and a limited re-entry ban or suspension of visa-free privileges, the agency said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday voiced dissatisfaction with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans- Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), whose latest meeting, concluded earlier the same day, appeared not to address the country’s application. In a statement, MOFA said the CPTPP commission had "once again failed to fairly process Taiwan’s application," attributing the inaction to the bloc’s "succumbing to political pressure," without elaborating. Taiwan submitted its CPTPP application under the name "Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu" on Sept. 22, 2021 -- less than a week after China
ALIGNED THINKING: Taiwan and Japan have a mutual interest in trade, culture and engineering, and can work together for stability, Cho Jung-tai said Taiwan and Japan are two like-minded countries willing to work together to form a “safety barrier” in the Indo-Pacific region, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday said at the opening ceremony of the 35th Taiwan-Japan Modern Engineering and Technology Symposium in Taipei. Taiwan and Japan are close geographically and closer emotionally, he added. Citing the overflowing of a barrier lake in the Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) in September, Cho said the submersible water level sensors given by Japan during the disaster helped Taiwan monitor the lake’s water levels more accurately. Japan also provided a lot of vaccines early in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic,
THE GOOD WORD: More than 100 colleges on both sides of the Pacific will work together to bring students to Taiwan so they can learn Mandarin where it is spoken A total of 102 universities from Taiwan and the US are collaborating in a push to promote Taiwan as the first-choice place to learn Mandarin, with seven Mandarin learning centers stood up in the US to train and support teachers, the Foundation for International Cooperation in Higher Education of Taiwan (FICHET) said. At the annual convention of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages held over the weekend in New Orleans, Louisiana, a Taiwan Pavilion was jointly run by 17 representative teams from the FICHET, the Overseas Community Affairs Council, the Steering Committee for the Test of Proficiency-Huayu, the
A home-style restaurant opened by a Taiwanese woman in Quezon City in Metro Manila has been featured in the first-ever Michelin Guide honoring exceptional restaurants in the Philippines. The restaurant, Fong Wei Wu (豐味屋), was one of 74 eateries to receive a “Michelin Selected” honor in the guide, while one restaurant received two Michelin stars, eight received one star and 25 were awarded a “Bib Gourmand.” The guide, which was limited to restaurants in Metro Manila and Cebu, was published on Oct. 30. In an interview, Feng Wei Wu’s owner and chef, Linda, said that as a restaurateur in her 60s, receiving an
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