About 10,000 Taiwanese expatriates are expected to return to the country to celebrate the Double Ten national day, the Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission said.
Commission Chairman Wu Yin-yih (吳英毅) said that more than 8,000 expats had signed up to attend National Day celebrations and predicted that the number could reach 10,000, the highest in the last eight years.
Last year’s celebrations attracted about 3,000 expats, Wu said.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) will deliver a National Day speech at the celebration rally in front of the Presidential Office next Friday and will lead the participants in chanting “Long Live the Republic of China” (ROC) and “Long Live Taiwanese Democracy,” Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said.
Ma said last week that this year’s celebrations were significant to the country and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) because it would be the first National Day since the party that had founded the ROC regained power after eight years.
The practice of the president addressing the National Day rally had been observed for years until former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) canceled his speech last year to avoid a repeat of the disturbance caused by his opponents during a speech he made on the same occasion in 2006.
Chen and his predecessor, Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), have said they would not attend this year’s ceremony, Deputy Minister of the Interior Lai Feng-wei (賴峰偉) said a day earlier.
Legislative Speaker Wang Jyn-ping (王金平), who is also the chief organizer of the National Day Celebration Committee, said earlier this month that the budget for this year’s festivities was NT$45.09 million (US$1.48 million), including NT$11 million for a fireworks display.
The fireworks show will take place in Chiayi City and a party will be held in Hualien County in the evening. A military parade will not be part of this year’s program.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
EARTHQUAKE: Taipei and New Taipei City accused a construction company of ignoring the Circular MRT’s original design, causing sections to shift by up to 92cm The Taipei and New Taipei City governments yesterday said they would seek NT$1.93 billion (US$58.6 million) in compensation from the company responsible for building the Circular MRT Line, following damage sustained during an earthquake in April last year that had shuttered a section for months. BES Engineering Corp, a listed company under Core Pacific Group, was accused of ignoring the original design when constructing the MRT line, resulting in negative shear strength resistance and causing sections of the rail line between Jhonghe (中和) and Banciao (板橋) districts to shift by up to 92cm during the April 3 earthquake. The pot bearings on
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
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