Border policies are to be relaxed for certain travelers from China, Hong Kong and Macau from Monday next week, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday.
As Taiwan’s COVID-19 situation is gradually being brought under control and the number of inbound travelers has remained below the weekly limit of 150,000, the nation’s borders would be further opened to people from the three destinations, the council said in a news release.
Chinese students would be allowed to enter Taiwan for short-term study and research programs, while people from Hong Kong and Macau would be allowed entry for work and religious purposes, and as part of tour groups, the council said.
Photo: Wu Cheng-ting, Taipei Times
Authorities would process Chinese students’ entry applications normally, as Taiwan reopened its borders on Oct. 13, it added.
Tour groups should apply through travel agencies approved by the Tourism Bureau, the council said, adding that each group can consist of five to 40 people and can stay in Taiwan for up to 15 days.
The council would continue to adjust the border policies for people from China, Hong Kong and Macau to strike a balance between economic development and disease prevention, it added.
The government on Sept. 29 allowed people from the three destinations to apply to visit Taiwan for humanitarian, family or business reasons.
Separately yesterday, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) reported 29,922 new local COVID-19 cases and 55 imported ones, as well as 81 deaths.
It also reclassified 137 cases as moderate and 83 as severe, including two cases of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) involving a one-year-old girl and a 10-year-old boy.
The boy was discharged from hospital on Sunday after his condition improved, while the girl is still in an intensive care unit, said Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), deputy head of the CECC’s medical response division.
The girl was diagnosed with MIS-C 168 days after being diagnosed with COVID-19, marking the longest interval recorded in Taiwan, the CECC said.
As eight basketball-playing international students appealed to the Taiwanese basketball industry after they were excluded from the draft of an upcoming new league merging the P.League+ and the T1 League, the new league’s preparatory committee spokesperson Chang Shu-jen (張樹人) yesterday said the committee would tomorrow discuss the supplementary measures and whether the international students can join the draft. The students on Tuesday called for support on their right to play in the upcoming new league, after a merger involving the two leagues impacted their eligibility for the draft. The international players from the University Basketball Association (UBA), led by first pick prospect
WARNING: China has stepped up harassment of foreign vessels after its new regulation took effect last month, an official said, citing an incident in the Diaoyutai Islands The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday linked China’s seizure of a Taiwanese fishing vessel illegally operating in its territorial waters to Beijing’s new regulation authorizing the China Coast Guard to seize boats in waters it claims. Chinese officials boarded and then seized a Taiwanese fishing vessel operating near China’s coast close to Kinmen County late on Tuesday and took it to a Chinese port, the CGA said. The Penghu-registered squid fishing vessel Da Jin Man No. 88 (大進滿88) was boarded and seized by China Coast Guard east-northeast of Liaoluo Bay (料羅灣), 17.5 nautical miles (32.4km) from Taiwan’s restricted waters off Kinmen,
Some foreign companies are considering moving Taiwanese employees out of China after Beijing said it could impose the death penalty on “die-hard” Taiwanese independence advocates, four people familiar with the matter said. The new guidelines have caused some Taiwanese expatriates and foreign multinationals operating in China to scramble to assess their legal risks and exposure, said the people, who include a lawyer and two executives with direct knowledge of the discussions. “Several companies have come to us to assess the risks to their personnel,” said the lawyer, James Zimmerman, a Beijing-based partner at the Perkins Coie law firm. He declined to identify
BOLSTERING DEFENSE: The explosive is 40 percent more powerful than those in use and could be deployed for Hsiung Feng II and III missiles, a government source said The Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has developed a polycyclic nitroamine explosive, commonly known as CL-20, which is the most powerful non-nuclear explosive known, a government source said yesterday on condition of anonymity. The institute has significantly improved explosive and rocket propellant research and development in recent years, the source said. A new factory was established in June 2022 with NT$540 million (US$16.6 million) in equipment installed, the source said. A central complex that would house 50-gallon (189 liters) and 300-gallon (1,136 liters) explosive mixer machines, as well as a storage device, was constructed in the factory, the institute said. The explosive is