An EU Center will open in Taiwan on May 22, the result of efforts by seven Taiwanese universities to facilitate exchanges and mutual understanding with the European economic bloc, an official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) announced yesterday.
It is hoped that the EU Center — the eighth in the Asia-Pacific region — will enhance Taiwanese knowledge of the EU, said the Taipei-based European Economic and Trade Office (EETO), the EU’s de facto embassy in Taiwan.
LEADERSHIP
MOFA Director-General of European Affairs Anne Hung (洪慧珠) told a press conference that the center would be housed at National Taiwan University’s (NTU) College of Social Science and that NTU vice president Bau Tzong-ho (包宗和) would serve as its director.
Su Hung-dah (蘇宏達), an assistant professor at NTU’s Department of Political Science, and Kan Yi-hua (甘逸驊), an associate research fellow at National Chengchi University’s Institute of International Relations, will be the chief operating officers at the center, Hung said.
National Chung Hsing University, National Sun Yat-sen University, National Dong Hwa University, Tamkang University and Fu Jen Catholic University will also be part of the four-year project, Hung said.
The seven universities will contribute 450,000 euros (US$600,000) to the project, while the EU will cover the rest of the 1.55 million euro budget, Hung said.
UNDERSTANDING THE EU
The EU began working with US universities in the late 1990s to open EU Centers in the US and promote better understanding of the EU among students. EU Centers at 10 US universities are successfully serving the purpose for which they were established, the EETO said.
The EU Center network was later expanded to the Asia-Pacific region, with centers in Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. Taiwan will become the third East Asian country with a center.
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
RSS