The nation’s special envoy to the APEC leadership summit, People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), is scheduled to meet with at least five national leaders attending the annual meeting, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, declining to reveal the names.
In the buildup to the summit tomorrow and Saturday in Da Nang, Vietnam, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政) yesterday asked Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lee (李大維) to reveal what kind of arrangements the ministry have made for Soong.
“Given our nation’s special condition, we have arranged bilateral [leaders’] meetings with at least five nations,” Lee said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, which was convened to review the results of President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) trip to three Pacific Ocean diplomatic allies.
Experience has shown that some nations are willing to disclose their leader’s meeting with Taiwan’s envoy, while others prefer to keep such a meeting secret, he would refrain from revealing the identities of the five nations out of respect.
Asked whether Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) was among the five, Lee said it was “inconvenient” for him to talk about the matter.
Lo asked whether any high-level officials from the Mainland Affairs Council and its Chinese counterpart, the Taiwan Affairs Office, would be accompanying Soong and Xi to the APEC summit.
“When [former vice president] Lien Chan (連戰) met with Chinese leaders in his capacity as the special envoy to APEC, both sides were in the company of high-level officials from the two government agencies charged with handling cross-strait issues,” Lo said.
Lee said to his knowledge, no high-ranking Mainland Affairs Council officials are in Soong’s delegation, adding that he has yet to receive any information regarding whether any Taiwan Affairs Office officials are in the Chinese delegation.
Lo then asked about the delay in Vietnam issuing a visa to Minister Without Portfolio John Deng (鄧振中), who is serving as the chief adviser and spokesman for the delegation.
Deng was unable to leave with the delegation on Tuesday due to a visa problem. He received the document late on Tuesday and departed for Vietnam at 7:40am yesterday.
“Except for the 2014 APEC summit in Shanghai, China, have any of our delegation members encountered difficulty in securing a visa before their scheduled departure?” Lo asked.
Lee acknowledged it was the first time, but declined to link the incident with a “third party” or Chinese pressure.
The ministry was given different reasons for the delay, but said there was no point in revealing them now that the problem has been resolved, Lee said.
Chinese spouse and influencer Guan Guan’s (關關) residency permit has been revoked for repeatedly posting pro-China videos that threaten national security, the National Immigration Agency confirmed today. Guan Guan has said many controversial statements in her videos posted to Douyin (抖音), including “the red flag will soon be painted all over Taiwan” and “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China,” and expressing hope for expedited reunification. The agency last year received multiple reports alleging that Guan Guan had advocated for armed reunification. After verifying the reports, the agency last month issued a notice requiring her to appear and explain her actions. Guan
GIVE AND TAKE: Blood demand continues to rise each year, while fewer young donors are available due to the nation’s falling birthrate, a doctor said Blood donors can redeem points earned from donations to obtain limited edition Formosan black bear travel mugs, the Kaohsiung Blood Center said yesterday, as it announced a goal of stocking 20,000 units of blood prior to the Lunar New Year. The last month of the lunar year is National Blood Donation Month, when local centers seek to stockpile blood for use during the Lunar New Year holiday. The blood demand in southern Taiwan — including Tainan and Kaohsiung, as well as Chiayi, Pingtung, Penghu and Taitung counties — is about 2,000 units per day, the center said. The donation campaign aims to boost
The Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau audited six hotels in an effort to prevent price gouging ahead of Korean band BTS’ concert tour in the city scheduled for Nov. 19, 21 and 22 this year. The bureau on Friday said that the audits — conducted in response to allegations of unfair pricing posted on social media — found no wrongdoing. These establishments included the local branches of Chateau de Chine, Hotel Nikko, My Humble House, and Grand Hai Lai, it said, adding that the Consumer Protection Commission would have penalized price gougers had the accusations been substantiated. The bureau said the Tourism Development Act
The military yesterday said it has located the flight data recorder, or black box, of an F-16V jet that disappeared off eastern Taiwan earlier this month, and it would soon deploy a salvage team to try to retrieve it. Air Force Command Headquarters said that while it had pinned down the location of the black box, it was still searching for the aircraft’s sole pilot, air force Captain Hsin Po-yi (辛柏毅). Without providing details, the air force said it had located the black box days after detecting some intermittent signals and would now engage a team of professionals to retrieve it. The air
RSS