Control Yuan President Wang Chien-shien (王建煊) yesterday suggested that the Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission (OCAC) expand its services to include expatriates from the People’s Republic of China.
Wang made the remarks during a speech before 180 board members of the OCAC, who returned to the country to attend its annual conference in Taipei.
“It doesn’t matter whether they are expatriates from Taiwan, China, Hong Kong or Macau, they should be regarded as a unit. Given the increasing number of Chinese expatriates, if you restricted your services to Taiwanese expatriates, I believe there wouldn’t be much left for you to do,” Wang said.
Wang said that Taiwan could win over Chinese expatriates by extending good services and showing them care, adding that the OCAC should focus more on love than the issue of unification versus independence.
“Under the leadership of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), we have seen a significant improvement in cross-strait relationships. If it continues to develop, the Nobel Peace Prize will one day be awarded to the people of the Republic of China,” Wang said.
Wang said love was the basis for Ma’s cross-strait policy and the starting point from which to develop cross-strait peace.
All political leaders and OCAC board members should work to bring better lives to people on both sides of the Strait, Wang told the audience, adding that: “Taiwan will succeed when it becomes an island of love.”
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
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