The Tourism Bureau reported yesterday that less than 1,000 Taiwanese tourists are traveling in Vietnam at the moment, but none of them are in the violence-stricken southern Binh Duong Province.
Riots erupted in the province north of Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday night during protests against Chinese oil drilling in a disputed area of the South China Sea. Protesters were reported to have broken into factories owned by Taiwan, Japan, South Korea or Singapore, destroying the facilities and pillaging valuable items.
According to the bureau, there are 943 Taiwanese tourists in Vietnam now. A majority of them are traveling in northern Vietnam, with 25 scheduled to return from Ho Chi Minh City last night. The number does not include free independent travelers, the bureau said.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Aside from the travelers who are in Vietnam now, the bureau said that 2,259 Taiwanese tourists are scheduled to visit Vietnam between now and the end of this month, although only 32 of them plan to visit southern Vietnam.
The escalating violence had caused the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to raise the travel alert in Binh Duong and Dong Nai provinces from yellow to orange, meaning that travelers should be extremely cautious and avoid unnecessary trips to the two provinces.
The ministry said in an online statement that the Binh Duong provincial government mobilized about 2,000 police officers to restore order in the city. However, the provincial government was seeking assistance from the Vietnamese government as the number of protestors topped 20,000. The situation in Dong Nai Province is relatively stable, it added.
Yang Wen-ping (楊文彬), who monitors the travel market in the Southeast Asian nations for the Travel Agent Association (TAA), said that 90 percent of Taiwanese tour groups only travel to scenic attractions in northern Vietnam, such as Ha Long Bay. Even if they travel to southern Vietnam, they only visit Ho Chi Minh City or Vung Tau, a seaside city, he said.
“The riot mainly took place in Binh Duong, which is an industrial district. No Taiwanese tourists would visit there. Only Taiwanese businessmen would go there,” Yang said, adding that travel agents have yet to receive any cancellations.
However, some people did call and ask about the updated situations in the country.
Yang said that they have contacted their sources in Vietnam, who told them that people in cities like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City continue their lives as usual.
Meanwhile, China Airlines announced yesterday that it would dispatch larger aircraft for services to Ho Chi Minh City today to help evacuate Taiwanese businesspeople who wish to return.
The bigger aircraft will expand the seating capacity by 344 seats, the airline said.
According to Civil Aeronautics Administration, China Airlines and EVA Airways will provide a total of 405 additional seats for today’s flights to Ho Chi Minh City.
A Taiwanese businesswoman returning to Taiwan yesterday afternoon described in a television news interview the unruly situation in the protest area.
“It was getting dark. We were turning off all the lights in the office, pretending that nobody was inside. However, they did not care and came in anyway. They trashed everything, windows or whatever they saw. When they came back again, we decided to hide in the warehouse because we saw them attacking workers in the factory across the street. Even though we did not get hurt, I was terrified and began thinking about my children,” she said.
Another Taiwanese woman surnamed Chao (趙) spoke to the Taipei Times in a Facebook message from Ho Chi Minh City yesterday, saying that the situation there was relatively quiet.
“We are fine. My daughter’s school has been canceled for the rest of the week. We just stay at home and do not dare go anywhere,” she said. “Our neighborhood seems rather peaceful. We did not really know much about the situation outside.”
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS