Spy chief grilled over brother
The head of the nation's spy agency yesterday denied that his brother's position at a company in China constituted a threat to the country's national security. Hsueh Shih-min (薛石民), head of the National Security Bureau, told lawmakers that his brother was recently transferred to China by his Taiwanese employer. But he rejected accusations that the move could jeopardize security. "It's his personal business and I cannot interfere or stop him," Hsueh said. "But this will not affect the exercise of my duty." He did not reveal the name of his brother's employer. Opposition lawmakers, who had raised the issue of the brother's job weeks ago, used a national security briefing in the legislature yesterday to press Hsueh for more details. They speculated that Chinese agents could try and use the brother to get access to state secrets. "What if tensions increase and the Chinese take your brother hostage?" Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lee Ching-hua (李慶華) asked. "Let him die then," Hsueh said.
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
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
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
US President Donald Trump said "it’s up to" Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be "very unhappy" with a change in the "status quo," the New York Times said in an interview published yesterday. Xi "considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing," Trump told the newspaper on Wednesday. "But I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that," he added. "I hope he doesn’t do that." Trump made the comments in
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