DPP legislator Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday lashed out at new bills he says are guilty of the outdated idolization of political figures.
The central bank is to issue new NT$100 bills in July. Bills with the new face values of NT$200 and NT$2000 will be released in January and July 2002 respectively.
Sun Yat-sen, the Chinese revolutionary leader, will be portrayed on the new NT$100 bills as on the current NT$100 bill. The new NT$200 bills will feature the figure of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), the KMT dictator and former ROC president.
Cho blasted the idea of using political figures on bills saying it was against the evolution of society.
"In today's modern world, we should not encourage political totems, which originate from feudal times," he said.
Cho said it is "tolerable" to see Sun on bills because "he is the only father of China." But he said that choosing Chiang's portrait for the new bill was unreasonable.
"Do we have to have all the presidents printed on our bills in the future? The decision [to have Chiang portrayed on the new bill] is solely to fulfil the requests of certain political powers," Chou said.
Cho said new bills are to be used for roughly two decades, "therefore, we should make use of the opportunity and abandon the outdated political concerns of authoritarianism."
The lawmaker said he has received complaints from a number of people, including staff of the central bank, about the new bills.
Other bills to be issued are designed to depict Taiwan's achievements in technology, education and conservation.
Wu Shaw-chii (
He said the adoption of both modern images of the country and also of portraits of political figures is "a compromise."
The central bank said the printing of the new bills has started and cannot be suspended as Cho suggested.
Cho also said it was inappropriate to issue the new NT$2000 bill, will become the highest value bill in circulation, because it may trigger inflation.
Cho claimed that the government's promotion of e-commerce would reduce the need for high-value bills, while holders of such bills would suffer greater losses in the event of a robbery.
Wu, however, said issuing the NT$2000 bills was a move to meet users' needs as well as being a global trend. "Currently, more NT$1000 bills are issued by far than all the other bills combined.
He also listed high-value bills of other countries to show consumer needs for higher-value bills. "US$100 is equivalent to over NT$3000; 500 French francs is over NT$2000; 1000 deutsche marks is about NT$15,000," he said.
"Taiwan's highest-value bill is only higher than that of Korea."
He said that only a small number of NT$2000 bills will be issued initially and will not cause inflation.
Certain revised bills issued last year featured subtle but significant changes and the modifications will be applied to other new bills.
Meanwhile the central bank -- the Central Bank of China (CBC) -- has replaced the Bank of Taiwan as the currency-issuing bank in order to make the New Taiwan Dollar the "national" currency.
The CBC had, since its establishment, issued bills for China. Taiwan suffered from serious inflation after the Nationalist withdrawal from the mainland in 1949. Therefore, the Nationalist government declared in the "Temporary provisions effective during the period of national mobilization for suppression of the communist rebellion" (
But when the provisions were made ineffective in 1991, the ROC lacked a legal national currency until last year, when the CBC replaced the Bank of Taiwan in issuing New Taiwan Dollar bills. In other words, the New Taiwan Dollar was upgraded to become the ROC currency.
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS