Taiwan and China should put their political disagreements to one side to facilitate bilateral exchanges, former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) said yesterday during a meeting with a visiting Chinese official.
Wu said there are many political questions that cannot be solved right now, but by showing patience, setting aside differences, and focusing on economic cooperation and cultural exchanges, more areas of common ground, such as lifestyle and values, would emerge.
“The more areas in which we agree, the greater the chances of resolving our differences,” Wu said in a meeting with a visiting delegation headed by Yunnan Province Chinese Communist Party Secretary Qin Guangrong (秦光榮).
During the meeting, Qin encouraged Taiwanese businesses to invest in Yunnan and use the province to make inroads into Southeast Asia and South Asia, creating new business opportunities.
He also said that Yunnan welcomed Taiwanese farmers, township wardens, teachers and students, as well as media, religious and business representatives to visit the province, and increase the exposure of Taiwanese products and culture.
Qin and his delegation of more than 200 arrived in Taiwan on Tuesday for a week-long visit.
During the trip, the group plans to participate in several activities to promote bilateral exchanges in several fields, including education, culture, technology, tourism and civil aviation.
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Commuters in Taipei picked their way through debris and navigated disrupted transit schedules this morning on their way to work and school, as the city was still working to clear the streets in the aftermath of Typhoon Kong-rey. By 11pm yesterday, there were estimated 2,000 trees down in the city, as well as 390 reports of infrastructure damage, 318 reports of building damage and 307 reports of fallen signs, the Taipei Public Works Department said. Workers were mobilized late last night to clear the debris as soon as possible, the department said. However, as of this morning, many people were leaving messages
A Canadian dental assistant was recently indicted by prosecutors after she was caught in August trying to smuggle 32kg of marijuana into Taiwan, the Aviation Police Bureau said on Wednesday. The 30-year-old was arrested on Aug. 4 after arriving on a flight to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Chang Tsung-lung (張驄瀧), a squad chief in the Aviation Police Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division, told reporters. Customs officials noticed irregularities when the woman’s two suitcases passed through X-ray baggage scanners, Chang said. Upon searching them, officers discovered 32.61kg of marijuana, which local media outlets estimated to have a market value of more than NT$50 million (US$1.56
FATALITIES: The storm claimed at least two lives — a female passenger in a truck that was struck by a falling tree and a man who was hit by a utility pole Workers cleared fallen trees and shop owners swept up debris yesterday after one of the biggest typhoons to hit the nation in decades claimed at least two lives. Typhoon Kong-rey was packing winds of 184kph when it slammed into eastern Taiwan on Thursday, uprooting trees, triggering floods and landslides, and knocking out power as it swept across the nation. A 56-year-old female foreign national died from her injuries after the small truck she was in was struck by a falling tree on Provincial Highway 14A early on Thursday. The second death was reported at 8pm in Taipei on Thursday after a 48-year-old man