DIPLOMACY
China talks to resume soon
A sixth meeting between the heads of the two intermediary organizations dealing with exchanges between Taiwan and China will take place in Taipei, Straits Exchange Foundation Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) said yesterday. “The meeting will be held soon,” Chiang said. However, he did not provide details about exactly how soon the meeting would take place. Chiang and his Chinese counterpart, Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林), have held five rounds of meetings over the past two years and have signed 14 agreements, mostly on expanding trade and economic cooperation between the two sides. The coming meeting in Taipei is expected to result in the signing of two new agreements, one on investment protection and the other on cross-strait medical cooperation.
IMMIGRATION
New system unveiled
The National Immigration Agency on Monday launched an online travel document screening system, called Edison TD, which it described as a powerful weapon against human trafficking. The Edison TD database contains more than 2,800 types of travel documents and anti-forgery data from more than 200 countries, said National Immigration Agency -Director-General Hsieh Li-kung (謝立功), who described the database system as easy to use and efficient in detecting fake documents. The online system is regarded as the world’s most complete travel document database and has been adopted by more than 50 countries, Hsieh added. The system was designed by the Dutch National Police Agency with the cooperation of police and immigration authorities in the US, Canada, Australia and the United Arab Emirates, the immigration agency said.
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
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.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) is to begin his one-year alternative military service tomorrow amid ongoing legal issues, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. Wang, who last month was released on bail of NT$150,000 (US$4,561) as he faces charges of allegedly attempting to evade military service and forging documents, has been ordered to report to Taipei Railway Station at 9am tomorrow, the Alternative Military Service Training and Management Center said. The 33-year-old would join about 1,300 other conscripts in the 263rd cohort of general alternative service for training at the Chenggong Ling camp in Taichung, a center official told reporters. Wang would first
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
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