President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) told US Representative James Sensenbrenner Jr on Wednesday that Taiwan hopes the US Congress will support its efforts to join international organizations and sign a bilateral extradition agreement with the US.
Sensenbrenner, accompanied by his wife, is on a weeklong visit to Taipei that began on Tuesday.
Receiving the couple at the Presidential Office, Ma said progress in cross-strait relations is closely related to the development of US-Taiwan relations, citing the significance of US military sales to Taiwan’s security and talks with China.
As Taiwan is seeking more international participation, the president asked Sensenbrenner for his support in helping realize the aspiration of Taiwan’s people to participate in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the International Aviation Organization (IAO) and other international organizations.
Referring to Ma’s expectations to sign an extradition agreement and a reciprocal visa-free agreement with the US, Sensenbrenner, a Republican from Wisconsin, said more discussion is needed before such agreements can be signed.
Meanwhile, former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) is in South Korea on a four-day visit at the invitation of the Universal Peace Federation (UPF) to attend an international leadership conference yesterday and today.
Lu and her entourage arrived in Seoul on Tuesday.
REVEREND MOON
She said upon her arrival that during her stay, she would give a brief speech at the opening ceremony of the leadership conference today and attend a banquet in celebration of the 90th birthday of UPF founder Reverend Sun Myung Moon.
Before departing for the US tomorrow evening, Lu will also meet with South Korean politicians and civic leaders on human rights issues.
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
A BETRAYAL? It is none of the ministry’s business if those entertainers love China, but ‘you cannot agree to wipe out your own country,’ the MAC minister said Taiwanese entertainers in China would have their Taiwanese citizenship revoked if they are holding Chinese citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. Several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑) and Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜), earlier this month on their Weibo (微博) accounts shared a picture saying that Taiwan would be “returned” to China, with tags such as “Taiwan, Province of China” or “Adhere to the ‘one China’ principle.” The MAC would investigate whether those Taiwanese entertainers have Chinese IDs and added that it would revoke their Taiwanese citizenship if they did, Chiu told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper
The Chinese wife of a Taiwanese, surnamed Liu (劉), who openly advocated for China’s use of force against Taiwan, would be forcibly deported according to the law if she has not left Taiwan by Friday, National Immigration Agency (NIA) officials said yesterday. Liu, an influencer better known by her online channel name Yaya in Taiwan (亞亞在台灣), obtained permanent residency via marriage to a Taiwanese. She has been reported for allegedly repeatedly espousing pro-unification comments on her YouTube and TikTok channels, including comments supporting China’s unification with Taiwan by force and the Chinese government’s stance that “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China.” Liu
MINOR DISRUPTION: The outage affected check-in and security screening, while passport control was done manually and runway operations continued unaffected The main departure hall and other parts of Terminal 2 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport lost power on Tuesday, causing confusion among passengers before electricity was fully restored more than an hour later. The outage, the cause of which is still being investigated, began at about midday and affected parts of Terminal 2, including the check-in gates, the security screening area and some duty-free shops. Parts of the terminal immediately activated backup power sources, while others remained dark until power was restored in some of the affected areas starting at 12:23pm. Power was fully restored at 1:13pm. Taoyuan International Airport Corp said in a
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