Nearly 60 legislators yesterday formed the Taiwan-France Parliamentary Friendship Association to bolster ties with the EU member.
The association was launched at a ceremony at the legislature in Taipei. It is to be chaired by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tsai Shih-ying (蔡適應).
It includes members of the DPP, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), the Taiwan People’s Party, the New Power Party, the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and independents.
KMT Legislator Wu I-ding (吳怡玎) and Taiwan Statebuilding Party Legislator Chen Po-wei (陳柏惟) are to be deputy chairs.
The promotion of diplomacy is among the most important responsibilities of a lawmaker, Tsai said, adding that the association hopes to begin exchanges with members of the French parliament next year.
French Office in Taipei director Jean-Francois Casabonne-Masonnave said he was delighted that nearly half of the lawmakers from across the political spectrum had joined the association.
He looks forward to working with them to boost bilateral ties, Casabonne-Masonnave said.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Harry Tseng (曾厚仁) said that France is a core member of the EU and one of Taiwan’s major trading partners.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
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