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.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and