Despite the anger from Aborigines, Vice President Annette Lu (
"Many Aborigines and even townships in central Taiwan wrote e-mail and letters to my office to express their support for my suggestion," Lu said yesterday during a tea party with reporters.
"Lin Wen-hsiung (
The Presidential Office arranged a news conference to allow the vice president to introduce the upcoming Democratic Pacific Assembly, which is scheduled to be launched during Aug. 13 to Aug. 15. Lu also answered questions about her emigration policy, which was made after the Tropical storm devastated mountainous areas in central Taiwan.
Lu stressed that the mountain and rivers in central Taiwan have been overcultivated, and the entire area needs rest. Therefore, she suggested that the residents, including both Han and Aborigines, may choose to move to Taiwan's allies in Latin America to develop their own new career as well as assisting in the exploitation of those countries' land resources.
Intending to reconcile misunderstandings between the vice president and those Aboriginal tribes, deputy secretary-general of the Presidential Office, Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) invited some heads of townships, who are also Aboriginal, from central Taiwan to a luncheon at the Presidential Office yesterday.
"We accept the Presidential Office's apology and we suggest that Vice President Lu should visit our township and listen to our ideas," said Cho Wen-hua (
Lu yesterday said that she was willing to inspect Aboriginal areas after completing the assembly, adding that her suggestion was supported by many Aboriginals and even Taiwan's diplomatic allies in the Central America.
"Although some [Aborigines] were making a clamor because of misunderstandings, there is a lot of support from overseas Taiwanese who are Aborigines," Lu said.
"Moreover, the representative councils of Hsinyi Township reached a resolution last month to seriously consider my immigration policy to move to Central America," Lu said.
Lu stressed that countries including Belize, Fiji, Peru and Costa Rica have expressed support for her immigration policy, and some have even promised to provide over 1,000 hectares of land for Taiwanese emigrants.
"I am not talking nonsense: my suggestion was made in accordance with so much support, and what I am concerned about is building a new cross-ocean relationship to connect eastern Asia and the western side of the Americas," Lu said. "Not to mention that the associations of Taiwanese people in Central America are all willing to assist those people who are willing to emigrate."
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening 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) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
BACK TO WINTER: A strong continental cold air mass would move south on Tuesday next week, bringing colder temperatures to northern and central Taiwan A tropical depression east of the Philippines could soon be upgraded to be the first tropical storm of this year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, adding that the next cold air mass is forecast to arrive on Monday next week. CWA forecaster Cheng Jie-ren (鄭傑仁) said the first tropical depression of this year is over waters east of the Philippines, about 1,867km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), and could strengthen into Tropical Storm Nokaen by early today. The system is moving slowly from northwest to north, and is expected to remain east of the Philippines with little chance of affecting Taiwan,