The Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) yesterday warned Taiwanese businesses operating in Myanmar of the highly risky situation in the nation after a Taiwanese company was damaged in a fire amid protests against a military coup on Feb. 1, while the nation’s representative office in Myanmar advised Taiwanese firms to fly the national flag at their premises.
Dozens of protesters were on Sunday killed by the Burmese military in Hlaingthaya Township in the nation’s largest city, Yangon, and several factories were burned down and ransacked, including one run by a Taiwanese company.
After the industrial area had been put under martial law by the military junta the previous night, a Chinese garment factory owned by Global Fashion (全球時尚) and a Taiwanese shoe-making factory owned by Tsang Yih were allegedly set on fire, with the cause being investigated by the authorities, magazine The Irrawaddy reported.
“According to information received by the OCAC a day earlier, the situation there has deteriorated, and some Taiwanese businesses have been affected,” OCAC Minister Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) told reporters before giving a report at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.
Tung urged Taiwanese businesses in the area to remain on high alert and to swiftly contact the nation’s representative office when necessary.
Asked whether the government would arrange charter flights to bring Taiwanese back from Myanmar, he said the OCAC would provide all necessary assistance, but that a final decision would be made by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The nation’s representative office in Myanmar had earlier advised Taiwanese companies to fly the national flag and hang signs stating that they are Taiwanese to avoid being confused with Chinese businesses.
The office “suggested Taiwanese businesspeople hang signs in Burmese reading ‘Taiwanese company’ at their factories and to hang our country’s national flag, and explain to local workers and neighbors that they are a Taiwanese factory.”
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that only one Taiwanese company was caught up in the violence, with 10 Taiwanese trapped inside the premises, although they were safe.
Taiwanese firms in Southeast Asia have previously been confused for Chinese companies during protests, including in 2014 when thousands of Vietnamese set fire to foreign factories in an angry reaction to Chinese oil drilling in a part of the South China Sea claimed by Hanoi.
Separately yesterday, Financial Supervisory Commission Chairman Thomas Huang (黃天牧) told reporters that Taiwanese banks in Myanmar were operating as normal.
Three local banks have branches in the nation — Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行), Mega International Commercial Bank (兆豐銀行) and E.Sun Commercial Bank (玉山銀行).
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat