President Chen Shui-bian (
Ren Hou (
PHOTO: WANG MIN-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES
"I hope that Ren Hou, the `Daughter of Taiwan,' can continue to support and care for Taiwan and work to promote relations and exchanges between the two countries," Chen said, referring to the title given to the 36-year-old by Taiwan's media.
Chen told Ren Hou that he was impressed by her recent remarks regarding Taiwan. When mobbed by reporters while attending the Democratic Pacific Assembly on Sunday, Ren Hou, whose father is Taiwanese and mother is Japanese, said: "Taiwan is my father's country. Why isn't Taiwan a country?"
"[The remark] shows not only that she hasn't forgotten her roots, but also manifests her firm support for Taiwan," Chen said when he met with Ren Hou at the Presidential Office yesterday.
Saying that Ren Hou's father was a native of Tainan County, where the president is also from, Chen said that he was proud to see a person with shared roots make an unusually brilliant achievement in Japan.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Mark Chen (
On a more serious note, the president, noting the amount of tourist travel between Taiwan and Japan, expressed hope that Ren Hou would work to relax the Japanese government's landing visa restrictions on Taiwanese tourists.
The Japanese government exercises visa exemptions for Chinese tourists, but grants only a three-day landing visa for Taiwanese tourists. The Taiwanese government, however, allows Japanese tourists to stay for two weeks on a landing visa when they come to Taiwan.
Citing statistics that last year more than 730,000 Taiwanese tourists visited Japan and more than 650,000 Japanese visitors to Taiwan, Chen, who expects the number to go up this year, said "it is important to make visas convenient for Taiwanese people, given the high number of Taiwanese visitors to Japan."
"On other important issues, such as promoting the signing of a free-trade agreement between Taiwan and Japan, establishing a mechanism for Taiwan-Japan dialogue pertaining to security issues and endorsing Taiwan's bid to become a member of the World Health Assembly [WHA], we hope for Ren Hou to also provide assistance in these regards," Chen added.
For Ren Hou's part, she said that she "personally finds it quite bizarre that Taiwan is excluded from joining the WHA."
Ren Hou said that although her party is not the ruling party in Japan, it nonetheless supports Taiwan's status in the international community.
Ren Hou is a member of Japan's primary opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan.
Prior to visiting Taiwan, she said that she admired Chen very much, and claimed that although her father had died 10 years ago, Taiwan will always remain a special place for her.
Ren Hou is slated to travel to southern Taiwan during the remainder of her visit before flying back to Japan on Thursday.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
EVA Air is prohibiting the use of portable chargers on board all flights starting from Saturday, while China Airlines is advising passengers not to use them, following the lead of South Korean airlines. Current regulations prohibit portable chargers and lithium batteries from check-in luggage and require them to be properly packed in carry-on baggage, EVA Air said. To improve onboard safety, portable chargers and spare lithium batteries would be prohibited from use on all fights starting on Saturday, it said. Passengers are advised to fully charge electronic devices before boarding and use the AC and USB charging outlets at their seat, it said. South
Hong Kong-based American singer-songwriter Khalil Fong (方大同) has passed away at the age of 41, Fong’s record label confirmed yesterday. “With unwavering optimism in the face of a relentless illness for five years, Khalil Fong gently and gracefully bid farewell to this world on the morning of February 21, 2025, stepping into the next realm of existence to carry forward his purpose and dreams,” Fu Music wrote on the company’s official Facebook page. “The music and graphic novels he gifted to the world remain an eternal testament to his luminous spirit, a timeless treasure for generations to come,” it said. Although Fong’s
WAR SIMULATION: The developers of the board game ‘2045’ consulted experts and analysts, and made maps based on real-life Chinese People’s Liberation Army exercises To stop invading Chinese forces seizing Taiwan, board gamer Ruth Zhong chooses the nuclear option: Dropping an atomic bomb on Taipei to secure the nation’s freedom and her victory. The Taiwanese board game 2045 is a zero-sum contest of military strategy and individual self-interest that puts players on the front lines of a simulated Chinese attack. Their battlefield game tactics would determine the theoretical future of Taiwan, which in the real world faces the constant threat of a Chinese invasion. “The most interesting part of this game is that you have to make continuous decisions based on the evolving situation,
RSS