Former minister of justice Wang Ching-feng (王清峰) was elected as the new president of Taiwan’s Red Cross Society on Friday amid a controversy over the charity’s attempt to restructure its operations.
Wang, a former vice president of the group, received the votes of 107 out of 112 representatives at a meeting in which two representatives from New Taipei City (新北市) and Taichung flipped over a table and smashed microphones to protest a proposal to merge the Red Cross Society of the Republic of China’s headquarters and branches.
“We will continue to communicate and negotiate. Then we’ll try to do our best to embody the spirit of universal love, humanity and volunteerism: that is, devotion,” Wang said.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
She also said that the society’s endeavors would move people emotionally and “do Taiwan proud” on the international stage. The election was postponed from a previous meeting on April 23 because of opposition to the merger proposal, which was again not put to a vote on Friday. The new proposal represents an effort by the Red Cross Society’s headquarters to change the Red Cross Society Act of the Republic of China (中華民國紅十字會法) and integrate the operations of the branches, which are supervised by city and county governments.
A revision proposed by the Ministry of the Interior would go further, abolishing the current system of two tiers of branches, with five large regional branches and smaller branches under them.
The idea to restructure the society’s operations arose earlier this year, when local media reported that some of the branches failed to submit donations intended for relief efforts following last year’s March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan to the headquarters or gave the money to other Japanese charities instead of to the Japanese Red Cross Society.
Under the existing law, the society’s headquarters does not have the right to intervene in the finances and personnel arrangements of its branches, even though it is higher up in the group’s organization, Deputy Secretary-General Lin Hsiu-fen (林秀芬) said.
Chang Meng-yu (張孟喻), head of the New Taipei City branch, said he would resign from the post and found another Red Cross Society while proposing the abolition of the Red Cross Society Act, because the law gave the society an unfair advantage in competing with other private charities.
The law has given the society a special legal status that exempts it from rules laid out in the Civil Associations Act (人民團體法) and related regulations governing charitable collection that govern other charities, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康) said last month.
However, Wang said that the act ensures the society’s neutrality in carrying out humanitarian missions during conflicts and disasters, because it is different from other charities.
The restructuring would also help merge the resources of the 26 branches with the society’s headquarters to better provide social services, she added.
Travel agencies in Taiwan are working to secure alternative flights for travelers bound for New Zealand for the Lunar New Year holiday, as Air New Zealand workers are set to strike next week. The airline said that it has confirmed that the planned industrial action by its international wide-body cabin crew would go ahead on Thursday and Friday next week. While the Auckland-based carrier pledged to take reasonable measures to mitigate the impact of the workers’ strike, an Air New Zealand flight arriving at Taipei from Auckland on Thursday and another flight departing from Taipei for Auckland on Saturday would have to
The Taipei City Government yesterday confirmed that it has negotiated a royalties of NT$12.2 billion (US$380 million) with artificial intelligence (AI) chip giant Nvidia Corp, with the earliest possible signing date set for Wednesday next week. The city has been preparing for Nvidia to build its Taiwan headquarters in Beitou-Shilin Technology Park since last year, and the project has now entered its final stage before the contract is signed. Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said the city government has completed the royalty price negotiations and would now push through the remaining procedures to sign the contract before
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday said the name of the Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania was agreed by both sides, after Lithuania’s prime minister described a 2021 decision to let Taiwan set up a de facto embassy in Vilnius as a “mistake.” Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene, who entered office in September last year, told the Baltic News Service on Tuesday that Lithuania had begun taking “small first steps” aimed at restoring ties with Beijing. The ministry in a statement said that Taiwan and Lithuania are important partners that share the values of freedom and democracy. Since the establishment of the
Taipei Zoo welcomes the Lunar New Year this year through its efforts to protect an endangered species of horse native to central Asia that was once fully extinct outside of captivity. The festival ushering in the Year of the Horse would draw attention to the zoo’s four specimens of Przewalski’s horse, named for a Russian geographer who first encountered them in the late 19th century across the steppes of western Mongolia. “Visitors will look at the horses and think that since this is the Year of the Horse: ‘I want to get to know horses,’” said zookeeper Chen Yun-chieh, who has been
RSS