DIPLOMACY
Ambassador appointed
Paraguay has appointed a new ambassador after leaving the position vacant for more than a year, with the new envoy expected to take up the post in Taipei in the coming weeks, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said yesterday. Carlos Jose Fleitas Rodriguez was named as the South American ally’s ambassador late last month, Department of Latin American and Caribbean Affairs Director-General Florencia Hsie (謝妙宏) said. The seasoned diplomat has close ties with Taiwan, having previously served as the minister at Paraguay’s embassy in Taiwan in 2010 and then as its charge d’affaires in June 2012. He also received a master’s degree in social sciences from Tamkang University in 2017, Hsie said. His most recent posting has been as consul in Curitiba, Brazil, where he has served since June 2018.
NATIONAL DEFENSE
Military monitoring PRC
The military yesterday said it had a clear grasp of the activities of nearby Chinese forces a day after the Japan Self-Defense Force said that China’s navy had deployed an aircraft carrier battle group in the Pacific Ocean. Military spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) said the military closely monitors Chinese maneuvers in the waters and airspace around Taiwan, and would take “appropriate response measures,” without elaborating. The Japan Self-Defense Force’s Joint Staff Office on Monday announced that the Liaoning aircraft carrier and seven destroyers and supply vessels had left the East China Sea and passed through waters between Japan’s Okinawa and Miyako islands before entering the Pacific Ocean. Warships in the battle group included the Type 055 large destroyer Nanchang, the Type 052D destroyer Chengdu and the Type 901 comprehensive supply ship Hulunhu, among others, the forces said. Local media reported that the battle group is expected to hold exercises in waters east of Taiwan.
FOREIGN AID
Funds donated to refugees
Representative to Slovakia Lee Nan-yang (李南陽) on Monday signed an accord with non-governmental organization Ukrainian-Slovak Initiative, committing Taiwan to donate US$150,000 in aid for Ukrainian refugee children in Slovakia. The funds would be used to help set up a kindergarten for children who fled to Slovakia after Russia invaded their nation on Feb. 24. Apart from the donation, Lee, on behalf of the government, also asked the organization to transfer an additional US$60,000 to Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa, which has been shelled by Russia. Ludmila Verbicka, head of the initiative, said that Taiwan’s timely assistance had given hope to Ukrainian children and women forced to leave their homes, and offered her thanks in Chinese.
POLITICS
Eric Chu to visit the US
KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) is to visit the US next month to meet with US officials and experts, and discuss Taiwan-US ties, cross-strait relations and Taiwan’s defense capabilities, a KMT official said yesterday. Chu is to leave Taiwan on June 1 and make stops in Washington, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles during the 12-day trip, KMT Department of International Affairs director Alexander Huang (黃介正) said in a radio interview. He is to meet with officials from the White House, the National Security Council, and the departments of state and defense, and would also attend a plaque-unveiling ceremony to reopen the KMT’s liaison office in Washington after a hiatus of more than 13 years, said Huang, who is to head the office.
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
A road safety advocacy group yesterday called for reforms to the driver licensing and retraining system after a pedestrian was killed and 15 other people were injured in a two-bus collision in Taipei. “Taiwan’s driver’s licenses are among the easiest to obtain in the world, and there is no mandatory retraining system for drivers,” Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance, a group pushing to reduce pedestrian fatalities, said in a news release. Under the regulations, people who have held a standard car driver’s license for two years and have completed a driver training course are eligible to take a test
Taiwan’s passport ranked 34th in the world, with access to 141 visa-free destinations, according to the latest update to the Henley Passport Index released today. The index put together by Henley & Partners ranks 199 passports globally based on the number of destinations holders can access without a visa out of 227, and is updated monthly. The 141 visa-free destinations for Taiwanese passport holders are a slight decrease from last year, when holders had access to 145 destinations. Botswana and Columbia are among the countries that have recently ended visa-free status for Taiwanese after “bowing to pressure from the Chinese government,” the Ministry
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