Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) exhorted members of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission (OCAC) yesterday to make the most of their good relations with communities around the globe to establish "Taiwan friends associations" in all major cities.
Addressing the opening of the 2004 annual conference of the OCAC in Taipei, Lu urged OCAC members to help optimize Taiwan's diplomatic efforts by tying overseas Chinese affairs to the diplomatic front.
Lu said that all Taiwanese should feel proud and fortunate to be Taiwanese. Although Taiwan is geographically small, she went on, the country is big in terms of global competitiveness, economic growth, export capacity and women's participation in politics.
Taiwan is too strategically important to let go from China, which has for long schemed to build itself into a new Chinese empire -- a giant map that would include Taiwan, Lu said.
Lu said that Beijing has maintained a mentality of denial toward the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government over the past four years in the belief that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) would not be re-elected.
But a Taiwan High Court ruling Thursday that reconfirmed the validity of Chen's re-election leaves no room for Beijing to ignore the DPP any longer, Lu argued.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) departed for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark. Tsai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday night, but did not speak to reporters before departing. Tsai wrote on social media later that the purpose of the trip was to reaffirm the commitment of Taiwanese to working with democratic allies to promote regional security and stability, upholding freedom and democracy, and defending their homeland. She also expressed hope that through joint efforts, Taiwan and Europe would continue to be partners building up economic resilience on the global stage. The former president was to first
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Monday called for greater cooperation between Taiwan, Lithuania and the EU to counter threats to information security, including attacks on undersea cables and other critical infrastructure. In a speech at Vilnius University in the Lithuanian capital, Tsai highlighted recent incidents in which vital undersea cables — essential for cross-border data transmission — were severed in the Taiwan Strait and the Baltic Sea over the past year. Taiwanese authorities suspect Chinese sabotage in the incidents near Taiwan’s waters, while EU leaders have said Russia is the likely culprit behind similar breaches in the Baltic. “Taiwan and our European
The Taipei District Court sentenced babysitters Liu Tsai-hsuan (劉彩萱) and Liu Jou-lin (劉若琳) to life and 18 years in prison respectively today for causing the death of a one-year-old boy in December 2023. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said that Liu Tsai-hsuan was entrusted with the care of a one-year-old boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), in August 2023 by the Child Welfare League Foundation. From Sept. 1 to Dec. 23 that year, she and her sister Liu Jou-lin allegedly committed acts of abuse against the boy, who was rushed to the hospital with severe injuries on Dec. 24, 2023, but did not
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