The Tourism Bureau yesterday said it had sent its regards to a Taiwanese tour guide who was slapped by Chinese tourists after their flight was canceled.
Flights between Kinmen and Taiwan were unable to cope with the number of tourists flying to Taiwanese mainland after heavy fog earlier this week caused airlines to divert and cancel most flights.
Tempers flared among some Chinese tourists after they were informed that they would not be able to catch a flight or book a hotel for days, forcing them to sleep under military blankets in the airport.
A group of Chinese tourists were caught on television slapping a female Taiwanese tour guide on Thursday after she informed the tourists that their flight had been canceled.
Bureau officials said they had sent their regards to the tour guide, adding that it had also reported the names of the Chinese tourists involved in the incident to China’s Cross-Strait Tourism Association and asked the association to demand that the tourists not slap people again.
In related news, three military cargo planes that were mobilized to fly hundreds of stranded Taiwanese vacationers from Kinmen County have arrived back on the Taiwanese mainland.
The Ministry of Defense-operated C-130s returned after picking up more than 400 tourists, although news reports yesterday said hundreds of vacationers were still unable to catch a flight out.
Kinmen airport officials said that each of the three C-130s made two round trips taking an average of 70 passengers on each flight from Kinmen to Taiwan. Four of the flights were made to Taipei and a further two to Taichung.
According to information from Kinmen’s airport, flights have been operating normally since yesterday morning after parts of the heavy fog lifted. Airlines have also promised extra flights during the next few days to ensure that the last of the stranded passengers makes it home safely.
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
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Taiwan-based publisher Li Yanhe (李延賀) has been sentenced to three years in prison, fined 50,000 yuan (US$6,890) in personal assets and deprived political rights for one year for “inciting secession” in China, China's Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Chen Binhua (陳斌華) said today. The Shanghai First Intermediate People’s Court announced the verdict on Feb. 17, Chen said. The trial was conducted lawfully, and in an open and fair manner, he said, adding that the verdict has since come into legal effect. The defendant reportedly admitted guilt and would appeal within the statutory appeal period, he said, adding that the defendant and his family have
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