■ Cross-strait ties
Notorious gangster arrested
One of the country's most wanted criminals has been arrested in Guangdong Province the National Police Administration (NPA) confirmed yesterday. Police said that Wu Tung-tang (吳桐潭) was arrested in the city of Zhuhai earlier this month and that they then faxed information on Wu, including his fingerprints, to Guangdong police to verify his identity. The NPA said it will arrange for Wu to be repatriated via Kinmen. Wu and some collegues reportedly arrived in China from Thailand on March 14.
■ Diplomacy
`Go South' policy working
The government will conti-nue to promote its "go south" policy to encourage invest-ment in Southeast Asia and boost cooperative ties with countries in the region, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Tou Chou-seng (杜筑生) said yesterday. Delivering a report on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs work agenda at a legislative committee meeting, Tou said Southeast Asia is one of the four target areas for intensified diplo-matic work, along with the US, Japan and the EU. Since the government adopted a "go south" policy to encour-age businesspeople to invest in Southeast Asia, Tou said, relations with Southeast Asian countries have been strengthened significantly. "The level of bilateral consultations with Singa-pore, the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia have been upgraded, and the status of our representative offices in Thailand and Indonesia have also been enhanced," Tou said.
■ Cross-strait ties
Wang not going to Singapore
Taiwan Affairs spokesman Zhang Mingqing (張銘清) said yesterday that Wang Daohan (汪道涵) has no plans to visit Singapore next month. Zhang made the remark in a regular press conference yesterday in Beijing which is seen to have shut the door for a possible Koo-Wang meeting in April. On Tues-day, Straits Exchange Foun-dation Chairman Koo Chen-fu (辜振甫) expressed his willingness to meet Wang in a cross-strait relations symposium scheduled for next month in Singapore. Wang is the head of China's Association of Relations across the Taiwan Strait. April 26 will be the 10th anniversary of the first Koo-Wang meeting in Singapore in 1992.
■ Diplomacy
Visa-free tourism urged
Wu Wen-Ya (吳文雅), repre-sentative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Malaysia said yesterday that if Kuala Lumpur were to match the visa-free treatment that Taiwan gives to Malaysians, Taiwanese would "travel in droves" to the Southeast Asian country. Wu noted that Malaysian tourist visits to Taiwan increased by 50 percent after Taipei granted 14-day visa-free entry to Malaysians. Wu said he believes that when the visa-free period is expanded to 30 days in May, the number of Malaysian tourists will increase dramatically. The number of Taiwan tourists to Malaysia totaled 209,700 last year, down from 250,000 visitors of the year before.
■ Society
People fear overwork
Many people worry about dying from overwork, according to the results of a survey released yesterday. The survey of 11,621 white-collar workers, conducted by the 104 Job Bank, found that 37.6 percent of ordinary workers said they are worried about dying from overwork. The ratio reached 48.9 percent among senior management executives and 66.7 percent among corpor-ate owners.
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
A magnitude 4.1 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 2:23pm today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was 5.4 kilometers northeast of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 34.9 km, according to the CWA. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was the highest in Hualien County, where it measured 2 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 1 in Yilan county, Taichung, Nantou County, Changhua County and Yunlin County, the CWA said. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
President William Lai (賴清德) has appointed former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) to attend the late Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican City on Saturday on his behalf, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today. The Holy See announced Francis’ funeral would take place on Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square. The ministry expressed condolences over Francis’ passing and said that Chen would represent Taiwan at the funeral and offer condolences in person. Taiwan and the Vatican have a long-standing and close diplomatic relationship, the ministry said. Both sides agreed to have Chen represent Taiwan at the funeral, given his Catholic identity and
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