Taiwan is to donate US$500,000 to Hawaii for disaster relief and reconstruction after wildfires, as well as US$600,000 to Bucha, Ukraine, for war reconstruction and air defense shelters, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday.
More than 100 people were killed, hundreds are missing, thousands of buildings were destroyed and billions of dollars of damage was caused as one of the deadliest wildfires in the US ravaged the island of Maui.
The ministry is donating to Hawaii to help with disaster relief and reconstruction operations, as well as to demonstrate the friendship between Taiwan and the US, it said in a statement.
Photo: Lu Yi-hsuan, Taipei Times
The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Honolulu is arranging the donation with the Hawaii state government, the ministry said.
The donation is most likely to be made to the Maui Strong Fund, which was set up by the Hawaii Community Foundation, the ministry said.
Taiwan hopes that people in Maui can rebuild their homes and return to normal life as soon as possible, it said.
“Taiwan can help and Taiwan is helping,” it added.
Meanwhile, Representative to Poland Sharon Wu (吳尚年) on Wednesday signed an agreement with Bucha Mayor Anatoliy Fedoruk in Warsaw to help the Ukrainian city build air defense shelters, the ministry said.
The donation is also to help reconstruct a children’s sports school damaged by Russian airstrikes to provide a place for the city’s young people to learn and play sports, it said.
Taiwanese, who also face threats from an authoritarian regime, empathize with the plight of the Ukrainians, Wu said.
Taiwan helped the city build 11 air defense shelters, and repair one kindergarten and nine houses in April last year, benefiting more than 1,000 Ukrainian families, the ministry said.
Taiwan would continue to cooperate with other democracies to assist Ukraine in its rebuilding efforts, she said.
Fedoruk thanked Taiwan for the donation and said that despite being thousands of kilometers apart, Ukraine and Taiwan are connected due to their commitment to democracy and freedom.
Taiwan has demonstrated its solidarity with Ukraine through words and concrete actions by protecting the lives of people in Bucha and providing opportunities for the future of the city’s children, he said.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
CHANGES: After-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during vacations or after-school study periods must not be used to teach new material, the ministry said The Ministry of Education yesterday announced new rules that would ban giving tests to most elementary and junior-high school students during morning study and afternoon rest periods. The amendments to regulations governing public education at elementary schools and junior high schools are to be implemented on Aug. 1. The revised rules stipulate that schools are forbidden to use after-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during summer or winter vacation or after-school study periods to teach new course material. In addition, schools would be prohibited from giving tests or exams to students in grades one to eight during morning study and afternoon break periods, the
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to 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), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition