Council of Indigenous Peoples Deputy Minister Iwan Nawi yesterday said the council has completed a draft Aboriginal land and seas bill that is to be sent to the Presidential Office.
Nawi said she hopes the Presidential Office’s Indigenous Historical Justice and Transitional Justice Committee can deliberate on the bill as soon as possible so that it can be sent to the Executive Yuan.
The council on Feb. 14 announced guidelines on the delineation of Aboriginal territories that would restrict the application of the “traditional area” label to government-owned land, explicitly excluding private land.
Aboriginal rights activists, opposed to the delineation, have been camped out on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei for the past 97 days.
A large amount of Aboriginal territory has been privatized and the exclusion would deprive Aborigines of the right to participate in the development of traditional territories that were seized and privatized by the Japanese and the Republic of China (ROC) government, the protesters have said.
The group yesterday told reporters that “traditional [Aboriginal] land should not be classified as private or public.”
Writer Chen Fang-ming (陳芳明) joined the group in criticizing President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration.
“This government always emphasizes that it is the administration most open to dialogue, but communication is always so distant,” Chen said.
Nawi visited the protesters yesterday to engage in dialogue, but they failed to reach a consensus.
Documentary filmmaker Mayaw Biho, demanded clarification of the government’s delineation of traditional Aboriginal land along the lines of “private” and “public,” arguing that traditional land could not be classified in such a manner.
The classification of Aboriginal land as “private” is an attempt by the government to use civil law to deal with what should be an Aboriginal transitional justice issue, he said.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday condemned Chinese and Russian authorities for escalating regional tensions, citing Chinese warplanes crossing the Taiwan Strait’s median line and joint China-Russia military activities breaching South Korea’s air defense identification zone (KADIZ) over the past two days. A total of 30 Chinese warplanes crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait on Thursday and Friday, entering Taiwan’s northern and southwestern airspace in coordination with 15 naval vessels and three high-altitude balloons, the MAC said in a statement. The Chinese military also carried out another “joint combat readiness patrol” targeting Taiwan on Thursday evening, the MAC said. On
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday confirmed that Chinese students visiting Taiwan at the invitation of the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation were almost all affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). During yesterday’s meeting convened by the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) asked whether the visit was a way to spread China’s so-called “united front” rhetoric, to which MAC Deputy Ministry Shen You-chung (沈有忠) responded with the CCP comment. The MAC noticed that the Chinese individuals visiting Taiwan, including those in sports, education, or religion, have had increasingly impressive backgrounds, demonstrating that the
MILITARY EXERCISES: China is expected to conduct more drills in the region after President William Lai’s office announced he would stopover in Hawaii and Guam China is likely to launch military drills in the coming days near Taiwan, using President William Lai’s (賴清德) upcoming trip to the Pacific and scheduled US transit as a pretext, regional security officials said. Lai is to begin a visit to Taipei’s three diplomatic allies in the Pacific on Saturday, and sources told Reuters he was planning stops in Hawaii and the US territory of Guam in a sensitive trip shortly after the US presidential election. Lai’s office has yet to confirm details of what are officially “stop-overs” in the US, but is expected to do so shortly before he departs, sources
Tasa Meng Corp (采盟), which runs Taiwan Duty Free, could be fined up to NT$1 million (US$30,737) after the owner and employees took center stage in a photograph with government officials and the returning Premier12 baseball champions at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Monday evening. When Taiwan’s national baseball team arrived home fresh from their World Baseball Softball Confederation Premier12 championship victory in Tokyo, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) was at the airport with Chinese Professional Baseball League commissioner Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) to welcome back the team. However, after Hsiao and Tsai took a photograph with the team, Tasa Meng chairwoman Ku
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