China’s promotion of low-priced tours targeting Taiwanese expatriates is an attempt to prevent them from returning to Taiwan to attend the Double Ten National Day on Thursday, a report by the Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) to the Legislative Yuan said yesterday.
The report said Chinese “united front” tactics have grown increasingly diverse and now include the promotion of low-cost tour groups targeting expats in addition to the usual strategies of using Chinese education, supporting pro-China groups or inviting expats to feasts to undermine overseas expatriates’ support and recognition of the Republic of China (ROC).
The tour group promotions give China the opportunity to claim that Taiwanese expats no longer wish to return to Taiwan to celebrate the ROC’s National Day on Oct. 10, the report said.
Photo: AFP
China has also pushed for local education systems to adopt programs that present it as an open-minded and technologically advanced country, the report said.
The OCAC estimated that 5,000 expats would return to Taiwan for the Double Ten National Day, adding that it has prepared 162 tour routes for them to experience local hotspots and scenery.
The council added that it has followed the Executive Yuan’s policy of caring for the Taiwanese community overseas and encouraging expats to visit Taiwan.
The council said it has promoted overseas Mandarin Chinese language learning programs and has established 84 Taiwan Centers for Mandarin Learning (TCML) — 66 of which are in the US and 18 in the EU — near expat communities to promote the language.
It is also looking to establish TCMLs in Canada and the Oceania region next year.
Asked for comment, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) yesterday said China’s tactics would have no significant effect on the number of expatriates returning this year.
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
Taiwan plans to cull as many as 120,000 invasive green iguanas this year to curb the species’ impact on local farmers, the Ministry of Agriculture said. Chiu Kuo-hao (邱國皓), a section chief in the ministry’s Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency, on Sunday said that green iguanas have been recorded across southern Taiwan and as far north as Taichung. Although there is no reliable data on the species’ total population in the country, it has been estimated to be about 200,000, he said. Chiu said about 70,000 iguanas were culled last year, including about 45,000 in Pingtung County, 12,000 in Tainan, 9,900 in
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
ALLEGED SABOTAGE: The damage inflicted by the vessel did not affect connection, as data were immediately rerouted to other cables, Chunghwa Telecom said Taiwan suspects that a Chinese-owned cargo vessel damaged an undersea cable near its northeastern coast on Friday, in an alleged act of sabotage that highlights the vulnerabilities of Taipei’s offshore communications infrastructure. The ship is owned by a Hong Kong-registered company whose director is Chinese, the Financial Times reported on Sunday. An unidentified Taiwanese official cited in the report described the case as sabotage. The incident followed another Chinese vessel’s suspected involvement in the breakages of data cables in the Baltic Sea in November last year. While fishing trawlers are known to sometimes damage such equipment, nation states have also
RSS