■DIPLOMACY
Tsai calls for caution
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday that while the DPP did not oppose engaging China, the lack of transparency that has characterized the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) rapprochement with China was unhealthy. Government and KMT officials never disclosed whether they had business interests in China, which has sparked public concern that KMT officials’ exchanges with China could be at the expense of Taiwan’s interests, Tsai said. Tsai made the remarks against the backdrop of a recent visit to China by Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊), a DPP member, who visited in her capacity as president of the World Games 2009 Kaohsiung Organizing Committee. Tainan Mayor Hsu Tian-tsair (許添財), another DPP member, announced on Wednesday that he would visit Xiamen next month for the opening ceremony of the first cross-strait sailing competition. “The DPP does not prohibit its elected officials from visiting China, but I hope soon to establish regulations for party members visiting China,” Tsai said, adding, “I personally have no plan to visit China.”
■ARTS
Ikenobo assembly in Taipei
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said yesterday that the annual assembly of Japan’s oldest floral art school, Ikenobo, which was held in Taipei, was a step forward in cultural exchanges between the two countries and strengthened the friendship between them. “The gathering here today serves as a platform for floral art exchanges between Taiwan and Japan, indicating not only the close cooperation between the two sides but also strengthening our long-lasting friendship,” Hau said at the assembly. Praising the 550-year-old Ikenobo for its efforts in spreading the spirit of Japanese floral art to the world, Hau invited the organization to participate in the Taipei International Flora Expo scheduled to open on Nov. 6 next year.
■HEALTH
New flu case announced
The Central Epidemics Command Center (CECC) yesterday announced the nation’s 11th confirmed case of A(H1N1) influenza, a 19-year-old Taiwanese college student in California who returned to Taipei on Wednesday night from Boston after making transits in Chicago and Tokyo. CECC spokesman Shih Wen-yi (施文儀) said the female student had been staying with relatives in Boston for about a week before she left for Taiwan on Tuesday. Upon her arrival at the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, the student, accompanied by her parents, took the Free Go Bus from the airport to Taichung, during which she developed a fever, Shih said. The student visited a hospital on Thursday for a check-up and was immediately quarantined, Shih said. The bus driver also developed a fever and was quarantined, Shih said, adding that while he could not divulge the name of the carrier the student had flown in, all flight attendants had been contacted for testing.
■CONSTRUCTION
Work continues on Zhongxiao
Road resurfacing work on Zhongxiao E Road will be completed tomorrow as scheduled, city officials said. People are encouraged to take the MRT to the area today and tomorrow, the Taipei City Government said. The westbound lanes of the road between Yanji street and Da-an road will be closed today, and the section between Da-an Road and Fuxing S Road will be closed to traffic tomorrow for resurfacing work, the New Construction Office 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
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
Tourism in Kenting fell to a historic low for the second consecutive year last year, impacting hotels and other local businesses that rely on a steady stream of domestic tourists, the latest data showed. A total of 2.139 million tourists visited Kenting last year, down slightly from 2.14 million in 2024, the data showed. The number of tourists who visited the national park on the Hengchun Peninsula peaked in 2015 at 8.37 million people. That number has been below 2.2 million for two years, although there was a spike in October last year due to multiple long weekends. The occupancy rate for hotels
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