Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) arrived in Shanghai yesterday to attend tomorrow’s annual Taipei-Shanghai City Forum.
He met with Taiwan Affairs Office Director Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) soon after his arrival and later held talks with Shanghai Mayor Yang Xiong (楊雄) on direct flights between Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) and Shanghai Hongqiao Airport, which began in 2010.
Hau said that thanks to the direct flights, people could travel between Taipei and Shanghai in less than a day.
“For example, I left Taipei at 12:30pm today and arrived in Hongqiao at 2pm, ready for talks with friends,” he said.
The first Taipei-Shanghai City Forum was held in Taipei in April 2010. The two cities have taken turns to host the annual meeting.
This year, the forum will focus on issues related to the development of education, senior citizen services, sports and the media, Hau said.
Hau’s delegation includes Sean Lien (連勝文), deputy convenor of the Taipei City Economic Development Commission, and several prominent businessmen, such as Hon Hai chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) and Want Want China Times Group chairman Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明).
During this year’s forum Hau and Yang are scheduled to sign four memorandums of understanding on issues concerning district administration, libraries and a citizen service hotline.
Hau will leave for Russia on Friday to attend the 2013 Summer Universiade in Kazan.
REPORT: Taipei has expressed an interest in obtaining loitering munitions matching the AeroVironment Switchblade 300 or the Anduril Altius-600, ‘Foreign Policy’ said Taiwan is seeking US-made kamikaze drones in an apparent concession to pressure from Washington to focus on asymmetric capabilities to defeat or deter a Chinese attack, Foreign Policy said in a report on Wednesday. Taipei has expressed an interest in obtaining AeroVironment Switchblade loitering munitions or other devices with similar capabilities, it said, citing four sources familiar with the matter commenting on condition of anonymity. The Switchblade 300 is a tube-launched drone designed for attacking ground troops, while its larger sibling, the Switchblade 600, could be used to destroy tanks and entrenched troops. Ukraine has utilized both systems extensively in its fight against
Police officers yesterday morning apprehended the prime suspect of a triple homicide case, after raiding the suspect’s hideout in Taichung. They transported the suspect to New Taipei City for questioning and recorded his statement last night. The suspect, identified as a 24-year-old man surnamed Chang (張), is believed to have used his hands to strangle his wife, surnamed Chen (陳), 29, along with his three-year-old son from a previous marriage and his wife’s mother, 69. The three dead bodies were wrapped in blankets when they were discovered inside their apartment in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) on Saturday. Chang was holding a
Hungarian Member of Parliament Tompos Marton said he considers Taiwan to be a better alternative to China as a strategic partner. Marton, who is the vice president of the opposition Momentum Party, made the remarks in an interview with the Central News Agency on Sunday. He draped a Republic of China flag across his shoulders to protest Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) visit to the capital city, Budapest, on Thursday last week, and openly voiced support for Taiwan on social media. He said in the interview that he wanted to remind the world that there were alternatives to China, and that “Taiwan has
A female physician at New Taipei City’s Shuang Ho Hospital was bullied and made to work for 32 consecutive hours by a senior colleague while pregnant before later having a miscarriage, an internal investigation found, the hospital said on Monday. The perpetrator has been removed from his post, the hospital said. The attending physician in the hospital’s Medical Imaging Department, identified by the pseudonym Y, earlier on Monday told reporters that she had been bullied by a male senior colleague who arranged shifts in her department. In January, shortly after she became pregnant, Y asked the department director if she could avoid overnight