The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday reminded Taiwanese artists traveling to Malaysia to perform to apply for the correct permits, following the arrest of four Taiwanese opera artists for visa violations.
Four Taiwanese and two Singaporean opera performers were arrested in Penang on Thursday last week for allegedly breaching their social visit passes by staging performances, Malaysia’s Penang Immigration Department said.
MOFA said that Malaysian immigration authorities on Friday notified its office in the country of the arrests.
Photo: Lu Yi-hsuan, Taipei Times
MOFA’s office in Malaysia also received a phone call from friends of the four Taiwanese arrested the same day, the ministry said.
Malaysian authorities raided the grounds of a place of worship in Butterworth on Thursday after receiving a tip-off about a group of foreign nationals performing without valid permits, Malaysian and Singaporean news reports said.
The detained people were aged 40 to 60, they said.
Penang Immigration director Nur Zulfa Ibrahim was quoted as saying that the performers were dressed in costumes and in the middle of their act when arrested.
Checks showed that the group had only social visit passes without the necessary approvals for artistic activities.
The performers are being probed for violating their pass conditions as stipulated under Regulation 11(7)(a) of the Malaysian Immigration Regulations, the reports said.
The performers each face a maximum of six months in jail, a fine of up to 1,000 Malaysian ringgits (US$232), or both, upon conviction for the offense, the department said on Facebook.
However, Danny Tan, the organizer of the opera performance, said that immigration authorities had not told them of the reason for the arrests.
He said he was still in talks with Malaysian authorities on whether they can secure the artists’ release by paying a fine.
MOFA said the four entered Malaysia on a visa-free scheme and are under investigation for breaching the terms of their entry.
MOFA said Taiwanese should apply for the right visa when visiting Malaysia, warning that those who fail to do so could face fines and even prison time.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
RSS