American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Stephen Young said yesterday that the administration of US president-elect Barack Obama would give careful consideration to including Taiwan in the US Visa Waiver Program if it meets the requirements.
During a speech at an American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei luncheon, Young said that he would not rule out the possibility that Taiwanese would eventually get visa-free treatment when they travel to the US.
However, Young said that there were a number of issues that needed to be resolved before Taiwan could be considered for the program, which was granted last month to citizens of seven countries, including South Korea.
Under the program, citizens of member countries may travel to the US without a visa for up to 90 days for business or pleasure.
Young said that the US remained a favorite destination for study, business and leisure for Taiwanese, but too often the US has found instances where people who were not Taiwanese have been able to obtain genuine Republic of China passports.
“We applaud Taiwan’s efforts to introduce a new passport,” Young said, referring to the “ePassports” that Taiwan plans to roll out at the end of the month.
The electronic passports are embedded with a chip that contains the biometric data and the facial image of the passport bearer. They are difficult to forge.
Young said the US hoped that the new passports and other measures including the strengthening of passport application procedures would help reduce passport fraud.
Young said that the US recognized that Taiwanese travelers to the US had a strong reputation for abiding by the country’s immigration laws and for spending generously while in the US, which was why he thinks that the new administration would look favorably upon Taiwan.
“People-to-people exchange is a critical component of our relationship,” Young said, adding that many Taiwanese government officials obtained their degrees in the US.
The US Department of Homeland Security has said there were 36,000 students from Taiwan in the US, making Taiwan second only to South Korea worldwide in terms of the portion of its overall population studying in the US.
Young said that he was glad to see that the number of Taiwanese students in the US remained strong.
On the other hand, he said there had been a drop in applications for visitor visas, a trend he blamed on the current economic downturn.
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
‘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
RSS