The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday denied a local media report that Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lin (林永樂) had tendered his resignation at a time when the government is under pressure to address the issue of Taiwanese businesspeople affected by anti-China riots in Vietnam last week.
“The report is totally untrue,” ministry spokeswoman Anna Kao (高安) said, adding that Lin was doing his best to deal with the issues related to the protests that have affected many Taiwanese businesspeople operating in Vietnam.
A report carried on the online version of the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) yesterday said that Lin had tendered his resignation in the face of the heavy pressure resulting from the mounting criticism of the ministry’s response to the riots, as well as the challenges of helping the Taiwanese affected by the unrest seek compensation from the Vietnamese government.
The report came after a Taiwanese delegation led by Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津) arrived in Vietnam earlier in the day to assist Taiwanese businesspeople in the Southeast Asian country.
The group is set to visit the areas hardest-hit in the unrest, including Binh Duong and Dong Nai provinces, and meet with Taiwanese businesspeople to learn more about their needs.
The delegation is also to meet with Vietnamese authorities in Hanoi tomorrow.
A total of 224 Taiwanese companies have reported suffering damage during the anti-China riots, with 18 factories set on fire, five of which were completely destroyed, according to statistics compiled by the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
The operations of about 1,100 Taiwanese enterprises in Vietnam have been suspended, it said.
The anti-Chinese protests erupted in southern Vietnam on May 13 over China’s placement of an oil rig near the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島) in the South China Sea, which it, Taiwan and Vietnam all claim.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
A magnitude 4.3 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 8:31am today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was located in Hualien County, about 70.3 kilometers south southwest of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 23.2km, according to the administration. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County, where it measured 3 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 2 in Hualien and Nantou counties, the CWA said.
The Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) yesterday announced a fundraising campaign to support survivors of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28, with two prayer events scheduled in Taipei and Taichung later this week. “While initial rescue operations have concluded [in Myanmar], many survivors are now facing increasingly difficult living conditions,” OCAC Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) told a news conference in Taipei. The fundraising campaign, which runs through May 31, is focused on supporting the reconstruction of damaged overseas compatriot schools, assisting students from Myanmar in Taiwan, and providing essential items, such as drinking water, food and medical supplies,
New Party Deputy Secretary-General You Chih-pin (游智彬) this morning went to the National Immigration Agency (NIA) to “turn himself in” after being notified that he had failed to provide proof of having renounced his Chinese household registration. He was one of more than 10,000 naturalized Taiwanese citizens from China who were informed by the NIA that their Taiwanese citizenship might be revoked if they fail to provide the proof in three months, people familiar with the matter said. You said he has proof that he had renounced his Chinese household registration and demanded the NIA provide proof that he still had Chinese
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