DIPLOMACY
US visa-waiver stalled
Minister of Foreign Affairs Timothy Yang (楊進添) yesterday said the ministry has been working to persuade the US to grant Taiwanese visa-free treatment, but so far, “there is no timetable for its implementation.” The US wants Taiwan to increase its percentage of in-person passport applications and to make applicants have their passport photographs taken when they apply, Yang said. Accordingly, the ministry has recently launched a trial drive to get more Taiwanese to apply for their passports in person, he said. From next month, at least one household registration office in each city and county will be opened to in-person passport applications on a trial basis, Yang said.
CULTURE
Swedish singer to visit
Disabled singer Lena Maria Klingvall from Sweden, who has been invited to visit Taiwan to attend the Republic of China centennial celebrations next year, presented a video to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in which she expressed her appreciation for the invitation, the Presidential Office said yesterday. The singer said in her 90-second clip that she was willing to accept the invitation and was looking forward to attending the celebration. Ma officially extended the invitation in a message broadcast in September on Swedish TV during a program about Klingvall. Although the singer and artist was born without arms and her left leg is only half the length of her right, she enjoys life just like other people.
CULTURE
Chefs to visit Belgium
Six award-winning Taiwanese chefs will visit Belgium to showcase some of the country’s delicacies this week, according to the Taipei Representative Office in the EU and Belgium. The six chefs, who won a team award at the Food and Hotel Asia Culinary Challenge in Singapore in April, will present cuisine that integrates Taiwanese and local ingredients at a Brussels hotel from Wednesday to Friday. The first dish on their scheduled menu is rice wine chicken soup, which is believed to warm the body and improve the circulation and energy flow. For appetizers and cold dishes, the chefs will prepare drunken chicken with goji berries, mussels in a five-flavor sauce, tomato slices in ginger thick soy sauce and celery salad with sesame sauce and wasabi. Soybean crumbs, an ingredient unique to Taiwan, will be spread on steamed cod from northern European waters for a combined taste of Taiwan and Europe.
CULTURE
Folk dances showcased
A two-day event showcasing Taiwanese and Japanese folk dancing, held in celebration of the friendship between the two countries and the growing bilateral tourism ties, concluded yesterday. In its eighth year, the dance festival held in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) was aimed at promoting cultural exchanges through performances of drumming, lion dancing and Japanese folk dance, a Tourism Bureau official said. According to statistics, the 10 Japanese dance troupes with a combined 120 performers also boosted foreign tourism in Taiwan by attracting more than 1,000 Japanese tourists to the annual extravaganza. According to the bureau, in the first 10 months of this year, about 885,000 Japanese visited Taiwan, a 6.5 percent rise compared with the same period last year. Meanwhile, around 1.11 million Taiwanese visited Japan in the same period, representing a 25.3 percent year-on-year increase.
LOUD AND PROUD Taiwan might have taken a drubbing against Australia and Japan, but you might not know it from the enthusiasm and numbers of the fans Taiwan might not be expected to win the World Baseball Classic (WBC) but their fans are making their presence felt in Tokyo, with tens of thousands decked out in the team’s blue, blowing horns and singing songs. Taiwanese fans have packed out the Tokyo Dome for all three of their games so far and even threatened to drown out home team supporters when their team played Japan on Friday. They blew trumpets, chanted for their favorite players and had their own cheerleading squad who dance on a stage during the game. The team struggled to match that exuberance on the field, with
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
A Taiwanese man apologized on Friday after saying in a social media post that he worked with Australia to provide scouting reports on Taiwan’s team, enabling Australia’s victory in this year’s World Baseball Classic (WBC), saying it was a joke and that he did not hold any position with foreign teams or Taiwan’s sports training center. Chen Po-hao (陳柏豪) drew the rage of many Taiwan baseball fans when he posted online on Thursday night, claiming credit for Australia’s 3-0 win over Taiwan in the opening game for Pool C, saying he worked as a physical therapist with the national team and
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