The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday that Taiwan's representative to Brazil Chou Shu-yeh (周叔夜), who has permanent residency in the South American country, tendered his resignation a few days ago.
“Three of the MOFA’s diplomatic representatives have permanent residency in foreign countries. They are the representatives to Japan, Brazil and Bahrain,” ministry spokeswoman Phoebe Yeh (葉非比) said at a regular press briefing.
A report in the Chinese-language United Daily News said that an investigation by the Central Personnel Administration found that about 30 of the approximately 1,000 diplomatic officials posted overseas have permanent foreign residency status.
However, that number includes not only ministry personnel, but also public servants posted overseas by other government agencies, Yeh said.
She said the ministry has approximately 650 employees assigned overseas, and none of them hold dual citizenship. Only one political appointee, representative to Switzerland George Liu (劉寬平), has US citizenship, she said.
The report also stated that the Central Personnel Administration will keep a record of public officials who have permanent residency in foreign countries, but would not ask them to renounce their status.
President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration has come under fire from the opposition over the foreign residency issue, with some legislators questioning the loyalty of officials who hold foreign residency status.
The issue came under the spotlight after Minister of Foreign Affairs Francisco Ou (歐鴻鍊) apologized for obtaining a US green card in 2005 when he was serving as the nation’s ambassador to Guatemala. He said he had officially given up his green card one month before assuming his current position on May 20.
Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers have, however, come to the defense of the former representative to Japan, Koh Se-kai (�?�), arguing that Koh had no choice but to apply for permanent residency in Japan because he was blacklisted by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government for more than 30 years and stripped of his passport because of his pro-independence remarks.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
Taiwan Railways Corp (TRC) today announced that Shin Kong Mitsukoshi has been selected as the preferred bidder to operate the Taipei Railway Station shopping mall, replacing the current operator, Breeze Development Co Ltd. Among eight qualified firms that delivered presentations and were evaluated by a review committee, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi was ranked first, while Breeze was named the runner-up, the rail company said in a statement. Contract negotiations are to proceed in accordance with regulations, it said, adding that if negotiations with the top bidder fail, it could invite the second-ranked applicant to enter talks. Breeze in a statement today expressed doubts over
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