The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) yesterday said that the US would not take sides in Taiwan’s elections in January after Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) claimed to have received a call from the AIT asking whether the party had noticed any Chinese interference.
At an event on Wednesday, Ko said that he had received a telephone call from the AIT inquiring whether there was “Chinese influence” in the political alliance between the TPP and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
As a small nation, Taiwan has “too many outside influencers,” Ko said, adding that the US, China, Japan and other countries “all want to dip their fingers in the pie.”
Photo: CNA
Ko also said that Taiwan is an autonomous country and should consider how to react to the situation.
The AIT said in a statement that the US has complete confidence in Taiwan’s democracy and believes that Taiwanese should decide who would be their next head of state.
Foreign factors should not influence this process, it said, adding that the US is dedicated to treating all presidential candidates fairly.
US policy toward Taiwan would remain the same, regardless of which political party wins the election, it said.
Ko yesterday said that it was “normal” for the AIT to be concerned about talk over a TPP-KMT alliance.
The US is an important ally and endeavors should be taken to maintain good communication to prevent misunderstandings, he said.
The TPP has kept in contact with the AIT at all levels since February, Ko said, adding that he had also promised AIT Director Sandra Oudkirk that there would be “no surprise” regarding Taiwan-US ties.
Ko said he had made the same pledge when meeting with officials in the US last month.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening 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) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
RSS