Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) yesterday expressed his support for a cooperation agreement between Aboriginal peoples on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
Jiang said he would be happy to see the issue being put on the agenda for cross-strait negotiation and would push the Council of Indigenous Peoples and the Mainland Affairs Council to evaluate its feasibility.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Kung Wen-chi (孔文吉), a Sediq Aborigine, renewed the initiative during a question-and-answer session with the premier at the legislature, during which he complained about the delay in pushing the idea.
The agreement between New Zealand and Taiwan on economic cooperation, which included a chapter on cooperation between Aboriginal peoples in both countries, prompted him to renew the initiative, Kung said.
“It’s been about two years since we have asked the Council of Indigenous Peoples to consider the possibility of signing such an agreement, but we have no idea what the status of its assessment is,” Kung said.
Kung said he was told by groups he has contacted in China that Beijing “very much welcomed” the idea of signing an accord on the issue with Taiwan.
Council of Indigenous Peoples Minister Mayaw Dongi (林江義) said the council only initiated contact with its counterpart in China in 2011 — a relatively slow start compared with other issues on the cross-strait agenda.
“So far cross-strait exchanges related to Aborigines have been limited to exchanges involving academics and experts, but we aim to expand the scope of exchanges to issues related to publications, preservation of cultural heritage and industry development,” Mayaw 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
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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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