Five Chinese cities that were invited to an international forum hosted by the Kaohsiung City Government are unlikely to attend the event, which starts today, a city official said yesterday.
Kaohsiung Economic Development Bureau Director Tseng Wen-sheng (曾文生) said invitations were sent in June to Shanghai, Shenzhen, Xiamen, Fuzhou and Tianjin for the three-day Global Harbor Cities Forum, but they have not responded.
Meanwhile, Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) yesterday said that city-to-city exchanges between Taiwan and China would be conducive to the development of cross-strait relations and it was regrettable that the five cities had not responded to the invitations.
Kaohsiung remains open to communication and exchanges with China, Chen said, adding that she had visited China twice — in 2009 and 2013.
Positive development of cross-strait ties can only be achieved through exchanges and interaction, Chen said, adding that she would not pass up any opportunities to continue such exchanges.
On the question of whether Kaohsiung was being targeted in view of the fact that Shanghai representatives participated in a twin city forum in Taipei last month, Chen told reporters she was disappointed that the five Chinese cities had not responded to Kaohsiung’s invitation.
Forty-four cities in 24 nations have confirmed their attendance at the forum, which will cover issues such as industrial transformation, marine tourism and sustainable development, Kaohsiung City Government officials said.
The delegates include Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk from Australia; Panama City Mayor Jose Blandon; Medan Mayor Dzulmi Eldin from Indonesia; Melvin Holden, mayor-president of the City of Baton Rouge and East Baton Rouge Parish in Louisiana; Callao Mayor Juan Sotomayor Garcia of Peru; and Male City Mayor Mohamed Shihab of the Maldives, the officials said.
The Kaohsiung City Government said it expects to sign several agreements at the forum with representatives from Vietnam, Panama City and Selangor in Malaysia.
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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