Thirty US senators have signed a letter to President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to congratulate him on his third anniversary in office, officials from Taiwan's top representative office in Washington said Monday.
The letter, which was faxed by Senator Larry Craig, chairman of the Senate Committee on Aging, also expressed the hope that Taiwan would no longer be excluded from the World Health Organization, and would soon gain observer status in the World Health Assembly.
"The 23 million people of Taiwan deserve access to information about diseases and cures," the senators said.
The senators said that with the recent outbreak of the contagious and sometimes fatal SARS, they see the absolute necessity of sharing medical information in a timely fashion and without any political obstruction.
The senators also noted with appreciation the humanitarian assistance provided by Taiwan to the people of Afghanistan and Iraq, not to mention the nation's generous contribution to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
"We also appreciate your government's unwavering support of our fight against global terrorism and the concrete steps that your administration has taken to protect the lives and property of US citizens in Taiwan," they said.
"With a shared common interest in maintaining peace and stability in East Asia, we applaud your good faith attempts to resume a dialogue with the People's Republic of China and hope that the PRC will respond positively to your evident goodwill, " the senators wrote.
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
A BETRAYAL? It is none of the ministry’s business if those entertainers love China, but ‘you cannot agree to wipe out your own country,’ the MAC minister said Taiwanese entertainers in China would have their Taiwanese citizenship revoked if they are holding Chinese citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. Several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑) and Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜), earlier this month on their Weibo (微博) accounts shared a picture saying that Taiwan would be “returned” to China, with tags such as “Taiwan, Province of China” or “Adhere to the ‘one China’ principle.” The MAC would investigate whether those Taiwanese entertainers have Chinese IDs and added that it would revoke their Taiwanese citizenship if they did, Chiu told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper
The Chinese wife of a Taiwanese, surnamed Liu (劉), who openly advocated for China’s use of force against Taiwan, would be forcibly deported according to the law if she has not left Taiwan by Friday, National Immigration Agency (NIA) officials said yesterday. Liu, an influencer better known by her online channel name Yaya in Taiwan (亞亞在台灣), obtained permanent residency via marriage to a Taiwanese. She has been reported for allegedly repeatedly espousing pro-unification comments on her YouTube and TikTok channels, including comments supporting China’s unification with Taiwan by force and the Chinese government’s stance that “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China.” Liu
MINOR DISRUPTION: The outage affected check-in and security screening, while passport control was done manually and runway operations continued unaffected The main departure hall and other parts of Terminal 2 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport lost power on Tuesday, causing confusion among passengers before electricity was fully restored more than an hour later. The outage, the cause of which is still being investigated, began at about midday and affected parts of Terminal 2, including the check-in gates, the security screening area and some duty-free shops. Parts of the terminal immediately activated backup power sources, while others remained dark until power was restored in some of the affected areas starting at 12:23pm. Power was fully restored at 1:13pm. Taoyuan International Airport Corp said in a
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