Diplomatic relations between Taiwan and Australia have reached a new milestone as Taipei recently opened a representative office in Brisbane, the third-largest city in Australia, the ministry of foreign affairs said yesterday.
The newly established Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Brisbane is the fourth consular office to be opened in Australia, in addition to the ones in Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne.
The latest addition to the Brisbane consular arm has made Australia the country with the third most Taiwanese representative offices, after the US and Japan.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs approved the establishment of the economic and cultural office in Brisbane on Aug. 16 after strong support from overseas Taiwanese in Australia.
A local Taiwanese association in Queensland started a petition campaign in October, 2002 to ask the government to open a consular office in Brisbane.
There are roughly 20,000 Taiwanese residents in Brisbane, which accounts for 40 percent of the total Taiwanese expatriates in Australia, making Brisbane the largest Taiwanese hub in the country.
The director for the Brisbane representative office, James Tien (田中光), arrived in Brisbane on Dec. 9 and received a warm welcome from local government offic-ials and Taiwanese residents.
Tien, 53, formerly served in Taiwan's representative offices in Houston and Canada, as well as in the embassy of Taiwan's former ally the Kingdom of Tonga and the Trade Mission Office in Fiji Islands.
He was also once the convener of the task force for the country's World Health Organization entry bid.
Meanwhile, Minister of Foreign Affairs Mark Chen (陳唐山) recently disclosed that the ministry has decided to send a former section chief of Taipei's Representative Office in Belgium, Song Zi-zheng (宋子正), to replace Cheng Shin (鄭欣) as ambassador to the Republic of Chad.
Cheng will become director of Taipei's Representative Office in Italy.
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
A BETRAYAL? It is none of the ministry’s business if those entertainers love China, but ‘you cannot agree to wipe out your own country,’ the MAC minister said Taiwanese entertainers in China would have their Taiwanese citizenship revoked if they are holding Chinese citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. Several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑) and Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜), earlier this month on their Weibo (微博) accounts shared a picture saying that Taiwan would be “returned” to China, with tags such as “Taiwan, Province of China” or “Adhere to the ‘one China’ principle.” The MAC would investigate whether those Taiwanese entertainers have Chinese IDs and added that it would revoke their Taiwanese citizenship if they did, Chiu told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper
The Chinese wife of a Taiwanese, surnamed Liu (劉), who openly advocated for China’s use of force against Taiwan, would be forcibly deported according to the law if she has not left Taiwan by Friday, National Immigration Agency (NIA) officials said yesterday. Liu, an influencer better known by her online channel name Yaya in Taiwan (亞亞在台灣), obtained permanent residency via marriage to a Taiwanese. She has been reported for allegedly repeatedly espousing pro-unification comments on her YouTube and TikTok channels, including comments supporting China’s unification with Taiwan by force and the Chinese government’s stance that “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China.” Liu
MINOR DISRUPTION: The outage affected check-in and security screening, while passport control was done manually and runway operations continued unaffected The main departure hall and other parts of Terminal 2 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport lost power on Tuesday, causing confusion among passengers before electricity was fully restored more than an hour later. The outage, the cause of which is still being investigated, began at about midday and affected parts of Terminal 2, including the check-in gates, the security screening area and some duty-free shops. Parts of the terminal immediately activated backup power sources, while others remained dark until power was restored in some of the affected areas starting at 12:23pm. Power was fully restored at 1:13pm. Taoyuan International Airport Corp said in a
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