The government should investigate allegations of Chinese dominance of Taiwan’s largest online travel agency Web site, ezTravel, representatives of two civic groups said at a news conference at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday.
Under the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) and other laws, it is illegal for Chinese companies or investors to manage or own travel agencies, Taiwan Citizen Front Secretary-General Chiang Min-yen (江旻諺) said.
Chiang also questioned how ezTravel — given its Chinese investment — has continued to win management of the Taiwan Railways Administration’s (TRA) round-island train travel programs.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
Economic Democracy Union convener Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強) said that ezTravel shares are evenly split between two Cayman Island-registered companies, CTrip.com and Cyberccn.com.
CTrip is owned by Trip.com, whose nine board members are all Chinese, including two — Shen Nanpeng (沈南鵬) and Lee Yenhong (李彥宏) — who are members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, Lai said.
Of the five seats on ezTravel’s board, two seats belong to Ctrip — including one held by Trip.com chief executive Sun Jie (孫潔) — two are held by Cyberccn.com and the other is held by former Trip.com vice president Xing Xiong (邢雄), Lai said, citing Ministry of Economic Affairs data.
“It is evident that Trip.com completely owns ezTravel’s board,” Lai said.
The ministry should order Trip.com to withdraw its investment and strip Sun and Xiong of their board seats, which have not been approved by the government, Lai said.
Chiang called on the government to penalize travel agencies that have not declared that they have received Chinese investment.
Pressed by reporters, Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) said that ezTravel had obtained its license as a foreign-invested company.
The ministry would look into its licensing should any concerns or new evidence arise, she said.
Investment Commission Executive Secretary Chang Ming-pin (張銘斌) said that previous investigations found that while ezTravel has Chinese investors, their share of its stock had not exceeded the 30 percent permitted by law.
However, the commission would ask the firm to provide additional information, Chang said.
Responding to the allegations, ezTravel said it is a legitimate local company that has been in business for more than 20 years, and it is completely independent and autonomous.
As for the question of how it has been able win management of the TRA’s travel program year after year, ezTravel said that the Economic Democracy Union had failed to examine the proposals and program offers made by other bidders.
It is sad that its efforts to promote railway tourism have been undermined by allegations, ezTravel said.
The National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology yesterday showcased its locally developed variants of the Vision 60 robotic patrol dog, which it plans to deploy on the nation’s outlying territories in the South China Sea. The variants were produced under the Joint Lab project — created by the institute and domestic companies — and assembled with domestically produced motors, lenses and artificial intelligence (AI) systems alongside licensed tech from the US, Missile and Rocket Systems Research Division deputy director Jen Kuo-kang (任國光) told the media event at a military base in Taipei’s Dazhi (大直) area. Taiwan has built up its strengths
RIGHT DIRECTION: Taiwan’s efforts to prevent forced labor include a proposal to ‘fully prohibit’ employers from withholding workers’ documents, an official said Taiwan is to establish a mechanism to restrict imports of goods linked to forced labor, the Executive Yuan said yesterday, after the US proposed imposing additional tariffs on Taiwanese goods over labor concerns. “The Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Economic Affairs are to establish an interministerial review procedure,” Executive Yuan spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “The government is to use the Foreign Trade Act [貿易法] as the legal basis to restrict imports of goods produced with forced labor” and bring its supply chain governance more in line with international standards on human rights, resilience
NOT IMMEDIATE: Taiwan has a chance to appeal the proposed 10 percent tariff before it starts, while other countries face a 12.5 percent tariff from the trade office Taiwan is among 60 economies determined by the US to have failed to impose or enforce a ban on the importation of goods produced with forced labor, according to a notice released on Tuesday by the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), which proposed imposing an additional 10 percent or more tariff on them. The USTR in a statement said that following an investigation, it had determined under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 that the failure of the 60 economies to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor is
TIT-FOR-TAT: The US allegedly revoked the visa of a Chinese national working at Xinhua News Agency in the US in response to Beijing’s expulsion of Vivian Wang The Presidential Office yesterday condemned China for expelling a New York Times correspondent from Beijing following the newspaper’s interview with President William Lai (賴清德), saying the move highlighted Beijing’s suppression of press freedom and its threat to international news media. Taiwan has noted a series of recent incidents in which Beijing used similar tactics to “threaten and pressure international media outlets and journalists,” Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said in a statement. “This concerns not only press freedom and freedom of expression, but also the safety of journalists, and Taiwan and relevant partners are paying close attention to the situation,” she
RSS