The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday was evasive on why the administration was reluctant to protest Chinese vessels venturing into waters off the Diaoyutai islands (釣魚台), which Taiwan considers its territory.
MAC Deputy Minister Liu Te-shun (劉德勳) said the government’s position was clear and consistent and that the administration would do whatever it could to protect the life, property and interests of fishermen.
Taiwan lodged a protest against Tokyo on Tuesday after a Taiwanese fishing boat heading to the islands was turned back by seven Japanese patrol vessels.
Meanwhile, Liu denied speculation that Beijing was attempting to reach a political consensus with Taipei that both sides would focus on resolving economic issues through an institutionalized negotiation platform.
Liu said the most pressing matter at the moment was building mutual trust. President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has made it clear that the two sides would not tackle political issues during his presidency, he said.
On the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, Liu said the council on Wednesday had authorized the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) to begin negotiations on upcoming high-level cross-strait talks and on the formation of a cross-strait economic cooperation committee.
SEF Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) and his Chinese counterpart, Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林), are planning to sign an investment protection pact and an agreement on medical and health cooperation later this year.
Chiang, who left yesterday for a four-day visit to Shanghai and Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, said that the main purpose of the visit was to meet with Taiwanese businesspeople there.
He also plans to visit the Taiwan Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo and preside over a ceremony to erect a statue at a Taiwan-built Matsu temple in Kunshan.
In related news, Civil Aeronautics Administration Director General Yin Chen-pong (尹承篷) confirmed yesterday that China had approved applications by Taiwanese carriers for new weekly flights to Shenzhen, Fuzhou and Xiamen, adding that the matter of “red eye flights,” which had derailed plans to launch the new routes, had been resolved after Chinese airlines yielded some time slots.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SHELLEY SHAN AND CNA
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
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