FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Wu to attend Esper talks
Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) is to hold an online meeting with former US secretary of defense Mark Esper on Wednesday next week to discuss the growing threat China poses in the Indo-Pacific region, the McCain Institute for International Leadership has said. The meeting, scheduled at midnight, would be the sixth of a series of public talks between Esper and a policy expert on issues related to US national security, said the Washington-based think tank, which is organizing the event. A main focus of the series is Indo-Pacific security partnerships and challenges such as increasing international authoritarianism and the spread of disinformation. Esper served as secretary of defense under former US president Donald Trump from July 2019 to November 2020. He is a distinguished fellow at the McCain institute.
EDUCATION
Additional students can enter
Taiwan is on March 1 to begin allowing the entry of international language students who do not receive Huayu Enrichment Scholarships, Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) said on Tuesday, adding that about 5,000 students without scholarships are expected to arrive by June 30. Schools that offer Chinese-language courses of six months or longer can submit entry permit applications for their prospective students, he said. The start date was chosen to avoid the Lunar New Year holiday to ensure enough quarantine hotel capacity, Pan said. International language students without an Alien Residency Certificate (ARC) have not been allowed to enter Taiwan since it imposed restrictions on foreign travelers in March 2020, amid the initial wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Taiwan in August last year began to grant entry to international students who are granted ministry scholarships, but do not have an ARC. Separately, the ministry on Monday said that about 1,000 foreign teachers hired by schools for the ongoing school year ending June 30 can apply for a special visa to enter the nation. Students and teachers would have to quarantine for 14 days upon entering Taiwan, observe another seven days of self-health management and frequently get tested for COVID-19 during the 21-day period, the ministry said.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Taiwanese to stay in Ukraine
Twenty-eight Taiwanese have chosen to remain in Ukraine despite the government urging them to leave, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Tuesday. Ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said that 34 Taiwanese residents of Ukraine have since Saturday been contacted. Six have left the country amid Western governments warning of an imminent Russian invasion, while nine have relocated to the western city of Lviv, close to the border with Poland, Ou said. Although the government respects the decision of those who wish to stay, the ministry, through its representative office in Moscow, is providing them with the latest updates, Ou said. Taiwan is among 31 countries that asked their citizens to leave Ukraine, the ministry said. In the event of an emergency, Taiwanese in Ukraine can call +7-969-008-6111 to seek assistance from the Moscow office, it said. They can also contact the Taiwan Trade Center in Kiev, which is run by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council, at +380-44-537-0982, it added.
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, was arrested in Boston last month amid US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday. The arrest of Liou was first made public on the official Web site of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday. ICE said Liou was apprehended for overstaying her visa. The Boston Field Office’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) had arrested Liou, a “fugitive, criminal alien wanted for embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes in Taiwan,” ICE said. Liou was taken into custody
ON PAROLE: The 73-year-old suspect has a criminal record of rape committed when he was serving in the military, as well as robbery and theft, police said The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday approved the detention of a 73-year-old man for allegedly murdering three women. The suspect, surnamed Chang (張), was arrested on Wednesday evening in connection with the death of a 71-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙). The Kaohsiung City Police Department yesterday also unveiled the identities of two other possible victims in the serial killing case, a 75-year-old woman surnamed Huang (黃), the suspect’s sister-in-law, and a 75-year-old woman surnamed Chang (張), who is not related to the suspect. The case came to light when Chao disappeared after taking the suspect back to his residence on Sunday. Police, upon reviewing CCTV
TAIWAN ADVOCATES: The resolution, which called for the recognition of Taiwan as a country and normalized relations, was supported by 22 Republican representatives Two US representatives on Thursday reintroduced a resolution calling for the US to end its “one China” policy, resume formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan and negotiate a bilateral Taiwan-US free trade agreement. Republican US representatives Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania’s 10th District were backed by 22 Republican members of the US House of Representatives. The two congressmen first introduced the resolution together in 2021. The resolution called on US President Donald Trump to “abandon the antiquated ‘one China’ policy in favor of a policy that recognizes the objective reality that Taiwan is an independent country, not
The US-Japan joint statement released on Friday not mentioning the “one China” policy might be a sign that US President Donald Trump intends to decouple US-China relations from Taiwan, a Taiwanese academic said. Following Trump’s meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Friday, the US and Japan issued a joint statement where they reaffirmed the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Trump has not personally brought up the “one China” policy in more than a year, National Taiwan University Department of Political Science Associate Professor Chen Shih-min (陳世民)