The Taipei County Council demanded yesterday that the county government discard the word "quasi" when referring to the county, as it decided to press ahead with plans to upgrade the county into a special municipality, instead of a "quasi-municipality."
A resolution calling for the Taipei County Government to remove the word “quasi” from the designation of Taipei County was submitted by 53 county councilors across party lines and cleared the council on Tuesday.
The central government upgraded Taipei County to a “quasi-municipality” last October.
CONFUSION
But the county council said the use of that term had increased the controversy over the county commissioner’s rights to promote personnel, creating a gray area between the central and the regional government.
The council said it would coordinate with the Taipei County Government in referring the resolution to the Executive Yuan to pave the way for the county’s upgrading to a “real” special municipality.
NAME GAME
The councilors were divided, however, over what the county should be called after it becomes a municipality. Some favor “Xinbei City” (新北市) or “New Taipei City,” while others said that county residents should be allowed to decide the new name.
At present, Taipei City and Kaohsiung City are the only two special municipalities in the country.
Eight Chinese naval vessels and 24 military aircraft were detected crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait between 6am yesterday and 6am today, the Ministry of National Defense said this morning. The aircraft entered Taiwan’s northern, central, southwestern and eastern air defense identification zones, the ministry said. The armed forces responded with mission aircraft, naval vessels and shore-based missile systems to closely monitor the situation, it added. Eight naval vessels, one official ship and 36 aircraft sorties were spotted in total, the ministry said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) today said that if South Korea does not reply appropriately to its request to correct Taiwan’s name on its e-Arrival card system before March 31, it would take corresponding measures to alter how South Korea is labeled on the online Taiwan Arrival Card system. South Korea’s e-Arrival card system lists Taiwan as “China (Taiwan)” in the “point of departure” and “next destination” fields. The ministry said that it changed the nationality for South Koreans on Taiwan’s Alien Resident Certificates from “Korea” to “South Korea” on March 1, in a gesture of goodwill and based on the
Taiwanese officials were shown the first of 66 F-16V fighter jets purchased by Taiwan from the United States, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday, adding the aircraft has completed an initial flight test and is expected to be delivered later this year. A delegation led by Deputy Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) visited Lockheed Martin’s F-16 C/D Block 70 (also known as F-16V) assembly line in South Carolina on March 16 to view the aircraft. The jet will undergo a final acceptance flight in the US before being delivered to Taiwan, the
The New Taipei Metro's Sanyin Line and the eastern extension of the Taipei Metro's Tamsui-Xinyi Line (Red Line) are scheduled to begin operations in June, the National Development Council said today. The Red Line, which terminates at Xiangshan Station, would be connected by the 1.4km extension to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, while the Sanyin Line would link New Taipei City's Tucheng and Yingge stations via Sanxia District (三峽). The council gave the updates at a council meeting reviewing progress on public construction projects for this year. Taiwan's annual public infrastructure budget would remain at NT$800 billion (US$25.08 billion), with NT$97.3
RSS