IMMIGRATION
German daily lauds Taiwan
Taiwan is one of only four countries in the world and the only one in Asia worth immigrating to, the German daily Der Tagesspiegel said in an article on Sunday. Taiwan’s democratic system, low crime rate, good infrastructure and friendly visa policies for skilled workers make it a great choice for people looking to move abroad, it said. The other three countries were Canada, Iceland and Uruguay. The article was written in response to the rise of the far-right in Europe, which has seen political parties across the continent advocate for stricter immigration policies. Taiwan is famous for its night markets and food, as well as its warm and friendly culture, it said, adding that it ranked first in Asia in the global human freedom index. In 2019, Taiwan became the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage, demonstrating its respect for human rights and diversity, it said. Taiwan also has advantageous immigration policies for foreign professionals, such as the Gold Card system, which allows skilled workers to obtain three-year work visas, among other benefits, it said. Taiwan’s infrastructure is high-quality, including a convenient public transportation system and modern healthcare, it said. Furthermore, compared with Germany, Taiwan has a lower cost of living, it said. Moving to Taiwan requires a sense of adventure given frequent threats and intimidation from China, the report said, but this situation has existed since 1949 and no conflict has ever broken out.
CRIME
Lin Zi-miao’s case appealed
Prosecutors on Tuesday said they have filed an appeal to have Yilan County Commissioner Lin Zi-miao (林姿妙), who was sentenced to 12-and-a-half years in prison for granting a Luodong Township (羅東) landowner a tax waiver, retried on related corruption charges. Lin, 73, was in December found guilty of money laundering, using her position to seek illegal gains and having unaccounted-for assets. However, the Yilan District Court determined there was insufficient evidence to prove Lin had engaged in corruption, a charge for which prosecutors had sought a 20-year sentence. In a statement the Yilan District Prosecutors’ Office said the district court’s findings were “flawed,” and that the sentences for Lin and 13 other defendants were “too lenient.” Lin, a member of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), was indicted along with 14 others in 2022 over a scheme to waive NT$1.12 million (US$34,107) in land value increment tax for a plot of land in Luodong Township. In return, the landowner provided land used for Lin’s campaign headquarters in 2018 and the KMT’s Yilan campaign headquarters ahead of the 2020 presidential election, prosecutors said. During their investigation, prosecutors also found that Lin had NT$70 million in transactions in and out of her Farmers’ Association bank account whose source she could not account for, the indictment said. Lin was suspended as Yilan County commissioner following her conviction. Her deputy, Lin Mao-sheng (林茂盛), took over as acting commissioner.
SOCIETY
Fullbright scholar mourned
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) on Tuesday mourned the death of Kiah Duggins, a recipient of a US government-funded scholarship program to teach English in Taiwan in 2017 who was killed in a plane crash in Washington last month. On Wednesday last week, an American Airlines passenger plane collided in midair with a US Army Sikorsky Black Hawk helicopter near the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, killing all 67 people on board the two aircraft. In a Facebook post on Tuesday titled “Honoring the Life and Legacy of Kiah Duggins,” the AIT said it joins Fulbright Taiwan in mourning the tragic death of Duggins. “From 2017-2018, Kiah served as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA) in an elementary school in Guanshan in Taitung County. There, Kiah co-taught English in a school of 350 students, many from indigenous tribal communities.” After teaching in Taiwan, Duggins attended Harvard Law School and planned to become a law professor at Howard University. In a separate statement, Fulbright Taiwan said Duggins was an ETA “dedicated to making her students more confident in using English.” A graduate of Wichita State University, where she majored in Spanish, economics and international business, her university professors described her as “phenomenal, bright, and passionate,” it said.
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢), a Taiwanese businessman and deputy convener of the nation’s National Climate Change Committee, said yesterday that “electrical power is national power” and nuclear energy is “very important to Taiwan.” Tung made the remarks, suggesting that his views do not align with the country’s current official policy of phasing out nuclear energy, at a forum organized by the Taiwan People’s Party titled “Challenges and Prospects of Taiwan’s AI Industry and Energy Policy.” “Taiwan is currently pursuing industries with high added- value and is developing vigorously, and this all requires electricity,” said the chairman
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