A group of legislators departed for Canada on Monday evening in a bid to gain support for Taiwan’s application to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
Taiwan officially applied to join the CPTPP on Sept. 22 last year, after which a parliamentary friendship group was established to advocate for the bid.
The group has so far sent four letters to leaders and officials of the CPTPP’s member states, including Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍), President of the Peruvian Congress Maricarmen Alva, as well as the speakers of the Canadian Houses of Parliament.
While the legislature is in recess, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉), who heads the group, is making the trip with DPP legislators Hsu Chih-chieh (許智傑) and Chung Chia-pin (鍾佳濱).
They plan to return on Wednesday next week.
Chiu told reporters that although no legislators have visited Canada in recent years, “now is a good time, as Canada is getting closer to Taiwan,” while its relationship with China is tense.
At the invitation of Shen Jung-chin (沈榮欽), an associate professor at the School of Administrative Studies at York University, Canada, they are to discuss the CPTPP and a foreign investment promotion and protection arrangement (FIPA) during the trip, he said.
Taiwan and Canada began “exploratory discussions” on signing a FIPA to enhance two-way investment and economic relations in January, he said, adding that the arrangement can be “the bridge that leads to the CPTPP.”
The three are also to visit Canadian members of parliament from several parties, including Taiwan’s long-standing supporters Michael Cooper and Judy Sgro, chair of the Canada Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Group, he said.
They plan to discuss ways to promote Taiwan’s bid to join the CPTPP with Taiwanese individuals and business groups in Canada, as well as meet Jeffrey Reeves, vice president of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, he added.
Meanwhile, DPP legislators Kuo Kuo-wen (郭國文), Mark Ho (何志偉), Michelle Lin (林楚茵), Lin Ching-yi (林靜儀), Chang Hung-lu (張宏陸) and Chang Liao Wan-chien (張廖萬堅) are to visit Japan from Thursday next week to Aug. 10.
They are to pay their respects to former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated during a campaign speech earlier this month, and to discuss Taiwan’s application to join the CPTPP with Japanese lawmakers.
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
The Chinese military has boosted its capability to fight at a high tempo using the element of surprise and new technology, the Ministry of National Defense said in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) published on Monday last week. The ministry highlighted Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) developments showing significant changes in Beijing’s strategy for war on Taiwan. The PLA has made significant headway in building capabilities for all-weather, multi-domain intelligence, surveillance, operational control and a joint air-sea blockade against Taiwan’s lines of communication, it said. The PLA has also improved its capabilities in direct amphibious assault operations aimed at seizing strategically important beaches,
New Taipei City prosecutors have indicted a cram school teacher in Sinjhuang District (新莊) for allegedly soliciting sexual acts from female students under the age of 18 three times in exchange for cash payments. The man, surnamed Su (蘇), committed two offenses in 2023 and one last year, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. The office in recent days indicted Su for contraventions of the Child and Youth Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act (兒童及少年性剝削防制條例), which prohibits "engaging in sexual intercourse or lewd acts with a minor over the age of 16, but under the age of 18 in exchange for
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty