Chinese authorities are helping the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) encourage Taiwanese businesspeople based in China to return to Taiwan to vote in the Nov. 29 nine-in-one elections through multiple channels, including chapters of China’s Taiwan Affairs Council and local Chinese officials, sources said.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who doubles as KMT chairman, has ordered the party to exert as much effort as it did in previous presidential elections to have China-based Taiwanese businesspeople return to vote, the sources added.
Despite recent friction between the Ma administration and Beijing over Ma’s remarks on the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong, China has extended its helping hand, they said.
According to people familiar with the KMT, Chinese authorities have been involved in reminding China-based Taiwanese businesspeople about the election to a degree that was seen only in the presidential elections in 2008 and 2012.
That seems somewhat unusual this year, because the elections are for local offices, sources said, adding that the extent of the effort that Chinese authorities have put into the mobilization shows that they regard the election as a precursor to the 2016 presidential election.
Some associations of China-based Taiwanese businesspeople have managed to secure cheaper flights available from between Nov. 20 and Nov. 28, with cheaper returning tickets available within a week after the election day, sources said.
It is estimated that there are more than 1 million Taiwanese living in China. About 210,000 people returned to vote in the 2012 presidential election.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to