The government is making preparations for Taiwan and China to establish representative offices on each side of the Taiwan Strait, a goal set to be completed by the end of the year, Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Chang Hsien-yao (張顯耀) told a press conference yesterday.
Taipei and Beijing recently decided to enter formal talks on the issue after two informal meetings had been held, Chang told a press conference following a Cabinet meeting.
At the meeting, the Cabinet approved a draft bill governing the establishment of an office in Taiwan by the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), the counterpart of Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF).
Both semi-official agencies are entrusted by their respective governments with handling cross-strait affairs.
Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) instructed Cabinet members to discuss concerns lawmakers may have with the project to get the bill passed by the legislature before the current session ends in the middle of the year, Executive Yuan spokesperson Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) said.
The representative offices are to be established by the SEF and ARATS and designated as branches of those institutions.
Under the bill, the ARATS branches in Taiwan and staff at the offices would be granted certain special rights for them to carry out their duties without legal interference.
Included in the rules are that no one would be allowed to enter the branches without the permission of those offices; their property and assets would be immune from search, confiscation or expropriation; and documents and archives would be inviolable.
The offices would not fall under Taiwan’s jurisdiction in civil, criminal or administrative matters, unless the circumstances indicate otherwise, such as following the abandonment of such rights, employees are defendants in a counter-claim filed in an original case, or are involved in business litigation or lawsuits related to real estate, the bill says.
The bill stipulates that Chinese staff at the ARATS offices in Taiwan would enjoy immunity from Taiwan’s jurisdiction in civil and criminal matters in the exercise of their functions, and would have certain tax exemptions and other privileges to be decided at the discretion of the Cabinet.
Chang said that provisions under the draft bill were the principles by which the government would base the negotiations with China over the establishment of SEF branches in China as both sides need to “sustain an equal and reciprocal relationship.”
An ARATS branch in Taiwan would never be like the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in Hong Kong, an organ of the Central People’s Government of China, or Xinhua news agency’s branch in Hong Kong, the successor of the Liaison Office before Hong Kong was returned to Chinese rule, Chang said.
The cross-strait relationship and the relationship between Hong Kong and China before and after 1997 are not comparable, Chang said.
CIVIL DEFENSE: More reservists in alternative service would help establish a sound civil defense system for use in wartime and during natural disasters, Kuma Academy’s CEO said While a total of 120,000 reservists are expected to be called up for alternative reserve drills this year, compared with the 6,505 drilled last year, the number has been revised to 58,000 due to a postponed training date, Deputy Minster of the Interior Ma Shih-yuan (馬士元) said. In principle, the ministry still aims to call up 120,000 reservists for alternative reserve drills next year, he said, but the actual number would not be decided later until after this year’s evaluation. The increase follows a Legislative Yuan request that the Ministry of the Interior address low recruitment rates, which it made while reviewing
As eight basketball-playing international students appealed to the Taiwanese basketball industry after they were excluded from the draft of an upcoming new league merging the P.League+ and the T1 League, the new league’s preparatory committee spokesperson Chang Shu-jen (張樹人) yesterday said the committee would tomorrow discuss the supplementary measures and whether the international students can join the draft. The students on Tuesday called for support on their right to play in the upcoming new league, after a merger involving the two leagues impacted their eligibility for the draft. The international players from the University Basketball Association (UBA), led by first pick prospect
WARNING: China has stepped up harassment of foreign vessels after its new regulation took effect last month, an official said, citing an incident in the Diaoyutai Islands The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday linked China’s seizure of a Taiwanese fishing vessel illegally operating in its territorial waters to Beijing’s new regulation authorizing the China Coast Guard to seize boats in waters it claims. Chinese officials boarded and then seized a Taiwanese fishing vessel operating near China’s coast close to Kinmen County late on Tuesday and took it to a Chinese port, the CGA said. The Penghu-registered squid fishing vessel Da Jin Man No. 88 (大進滿88) was boarded and seized by China Coast Guard east-northeast of Liaoluo Bay (料羅灣), 17.5 nautical miles (32.4km) from Taiwan’s restricted waters off Kinmen,
Some foreign companies are considering moving Taiwanese employees out of China after Beijing said it could impose the death penalty on “die-hard” Taiwanese independence advocates, four people familiar with the matter said. The new guidelines have caused some Taiwanese expatriates and foreign multinationals operating in China to scramble to assess their legal risks and exposure, said the people, who include a lawyer and two executives with direct knowledge of the discussions. “Several companies have come to us to assess the risks to their personnel,” said the lawyer, James Zimmerman, a Beijing-based partner at the Perkins Coie law firm. He declined to identify