Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu’s (韓國瑜) policy advisory team yesterday proposed nine policies as part of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate’s platform on new immigrants.
The proposals included lowering the number of years Chinese spouses must wait before they can obtain a national identification card from six to four; establishing a new-immigrant council under the Executive Yuan; building a national-level interpretation system; encouraging cooperation between multinational corporations and students who are children of new immigrants; developing new immigrants’ professional exam-related knowledge; providing an environment for learning Chinese and establishing a digitized learning platform; using the advantage of immigrants’ cultural diversity to nurture international talent; including pregnant new immigrants who are not covered by the national health insurance program in the program; and providing care services to immigrants arriving in Taiwan for the first time.
They proposals were announced by the team at a ceremony at the KMT’s headquarters in Taipei to mark the founding of Han’s national new-immigrant supporters’ club, which was also attended by KMT Chairman Wu Den-yih (吳敦義).
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
Wu said he hopes that everyone, regardless of their skin color, language or place of birth, can work together can create “one warm, big family.”
Over the past few years, many new foreign spouses have come to Taiwan, said former premier Simon Chang (張善政), the convener of Han’s policy advisory team.
There are now more than 550,000 new immigrants in Taiwan, he said.
There is a Council of Indigenous Peoples for the fewer than 570,000 Aborigines in Taiwan, he said, adding that a similar government agency should be created for new immigrants.
Meanwhile, Han attended the opening of his campaign headquarters in Penghu County.
Next year’s elections, on Jan. 11, “involve the survival or death of the Republic of China,” Han said, calling on voters to decide its future with their votes.
Additional reporting by Liu Yu-ching
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on