The Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied yesterday media reports quoting Paraguay’s vice president-elect that Taiwan had pledged a massive donation to its incoming government to help landless farmers in the country.
Paraguayan vice-president-elect Federico Franco said on Asuncion-based Radio Cardinal on Friday that the Republic of China (ROC) embassy officials had promised a US$71 million donation upon the new government’s inauguration.
“I’ve met with authorities at the Taiwanese embassy and they confirmed to me that they will donate US$71 million to the country when the [Fernando] Lugo government assumes office on Aug. 15,” Franco was quoted as saying by the Buenos Aires-based news agency Impulso Baires.
The money will be used to settle landless peasants in the country, the report said.
Lugo, a former leftist Catholic bishop, won the presidential vote last month and will be sworn in on Aug. 15 for a five-year term.
During his presidential campaign, Lugo estimated that about 300,000 peasant families were without farmland and promised to resolve the problem, the report said.
The situation has grown into a crisis as thousands of landless farmers began to occupy private lands owned by Brazilian soy growers, the Central News Agency reported.
In Taipei, ministry spokeswoman Phoebe Yeh (葉非比) denied the reports.
“The incoming Lugo government has expressed its wish [for the donation], but we haven’t discussed any details yet,” Yeh told the Taipei Times by telephone.
“Taiwan has always had projects with Paraguay. Those projects with the current government are going quite well,” she said. “The amount of aid to Paraguay is decided by the content and schedule of the projects.”
Yeh said it was still too early to discuss future aid projects with the incoming government, as it wouldn’t come into power until August.
Paraguay, which has maintained diplomatic ties with Taiwan since 1957, is one of only 23 countries that recognize Taiwan and is Taiwan’s only ally in South America.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is scheduled to visit Latin American and Caribbean allies, including Paraguay and the Dominican Republic, in the fall, Chinese-language newspapers have reported.
Additional reporting by DPA
Intelligence agents have recorded 510,000 instances of “controversial information” being spread online by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) so far this year, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said in a report yesterday, as it warned of artificial intelligence (AI) being employed to generate destabilizing misinformation. The bureau submitted a written report to the Legislative Yuan in preparation for National Security Bureau Director-General Tsai Ming-yen’s (蔡明彥) appearance before the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee today. The CCP has been using cognitive warfare to divide Taiwanese society by commenting on controversial issues such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) investments in the
INVESTIGATION: The case is the latest instance of a DPP figure being implicated in an espionage network accused of allegedly leaking information to Chinese intelligence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) member Ho Jen-chieh (何仁傑) was detained and held incommunicado yesterday on suspicion of spying for China during his tenure as assistant to then-minister of foreign affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮). The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said Ho was implicated during its investigation into alleged spying activities by former Presidential Office consultant Wu Shang-yu (吳尚雨). Prosecutors said there is reason to believe Ho breached the National Security Act (國家安全法) by leaking classified Ministry of Foreign Affairs information to Chinese intelligence. Following interrogation, prosecutors petitioned the Taipei District Court to detain Ho, citing concerns over potential collusion or tampering of evidence. The
‘COMPREHENSIVE PLAN’: Lin Chia-lung said that the government was ready to talk about a variety of issues, including investment in and purchases from the US The National Stabilization Fund (NSF) yesterday announced that it would step in to staunch stock market losses for the ninth time in the nation’s history. An NSF board meeting, originally scheduled for Monday next week, was moved to yesterday after stocks plummeted in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s announcement of 32 percent tariffs on Taiwan on Wednesday last week. Board members voted to support the stock market with the NT$500 billion (US$15.15 billion) fund, with injections of funds to begin as soon as today. The NSF in 2000 injected NT$120 billion to stabilize stocks, the most ever. The lowest amount it
NEGOTIATIONS: Taiwan has good relations with Washington and the outlook for the negotiations looks promising, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo said Taiwan’s GDP growth this year is expected to decrease by 0.43 to 1.61 percentage points due to the effects of US tariffs, National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei yesterday, citing a preliminary estimate by a private research institution. Taiwan’s economy would be significantly affected by the 32 percent “reciprocal” tariffs slapped by the US, which took effect yesterday, Liu said, adding that GDP growth could fall below 3 percent and potentially even dip below 2 percent to 1.53 percent this year. The council has commissioned another institution
RSS