Author: Web Desk

The government of the Republic of China (ROC, Taiwan’s official name), the Turkish Trade Office in Taipei, and private organizations have launched drives to collect donations and supplies for Turkey and Syria after a magnitude-7.8 earthquake struck the region early Monday, with the confirmed death toll rising to more than 9,600 as of Wednesday evening Taiwan time.

Taiwan government-designated accounts for donations:

1. Donations in Taiwan can be made over-the-counter to: Bank: Department of the Treasury, Central Bank of the ROC Account No: 270750 Account name: Ministry of Health and Welfare disaster relief account

Chunghwa Post Co., Ltd. postal transfer account Account No: 50269506 Account name: Ministry of Health and Welfare disaster relief account

2. For donations coming from outside Taiwan, funds can be sent to:Bank: Mega International Commercial Bank Account No: 007-09-11868-0 Account name: Ministry of Health and Welfare disaster relief account

Donors are requested to indicate that their donations are intended for the Turkey earthquake relief fund and leave their name, phone number, and address to receive a receipt. Please call (02) 85906666 for more information.

Turkish Trade Office in Taipei:

Urgent need for supplies such as: coats, sweaters, pants, gloves, scarfs, fur hats, socks, and underwear for adults and kids to keep warm, as well as raincoats, boots, tents, mattresses, blankets, thermos, flashlights, diapers, tampons, sanitary napkins, and other personal hygiene products.

Anyone seeking more information should contact the office by email at tr-office.taipei@mfa.gov.tr., and leave their contact number and donation details.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel

A delegation led by Kuomintang (KMT) Vice Chairman Andrew Hsia (???) on Wednesday left Taiwan for a multicity tour of China, which is expected to include a meeting with Sung Tao (??), the head of Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO).

The delegation – comprising Hsia, KMT Mainland Affairs Department head Lin Chu-chia (???), and Kao Su-po (???) and Chao Chun-shan (???) of the National Policy Foundation, a KMT-affiliated think tank – is scheduled to make stops in Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuhan, Chongqing and Chengdu during the visit from Feb. 8 to Feb. 17.

Speaking to reporters at Taoyuan International Airport before boarding a flight to Beijing, Hsia said the “apolitical” trip was aimed at looking after the welfare of Taiwanese living and working in China.

Hsia said he hoped the delegation could also help resolve the plight of Taiwanese small- and medium-sized enterprises, particularly in the agricultural and fisheries sectors, hit by a series of import suspensions rolled out by China since 2021.

There have been changes to the posts in the Chinese government involving Taiwan affairs, and the delegation hopes to be introduced to new officials in charge of Taiwan affairs that took office after the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in October last year, Hsia said.

Hsia said relations between Taipei and Beijing had warmed following Taiwan’s lifting of border controls in October last year, adding that he hoped the trip would further improve understanding and dialogue across the strait.

This would be consistent with the hopes of President Tsai Ing-wen (???), who has asked Taiwanese businesspeople in China to engage in “positive interactions and dialogue” with the Chinese people, Hsia said.

As an opposition party, the KMT is not authorized to engage in any form of political negotiations or consultations in China, Hsia added.

Asked about the timing for both his trips, which seemed to have come amid high tensions in the Taiwan Strait, Hsia said: “For some people, there will never be a good time to visit China.”

Hsia last visited China on Aug. 10, 2022, one day after the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) announced the conclusion of military exercises launched around Taiwan following a visit to Taipei by then-U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

There were no political considerations for the timing of the trips, Hsia said, adding that “the more perilous the situation, the more reason for a visit.”

Asked whether he would express concern over CIA Director William Burns’ recent remarks that Chinese President Xi Jinping (???) has ordered the PLA to be ready by 2027 to “conduct a successful invasion” of Taiwan, Hsia said that “the timeline for such an invasion varies from one source to another, but any issue that is of concern for Taiwanese would be brought up with the other side at appropriate times.”

TAO spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (???) told at a news conference in Beijing that Hsia was scheduled to attend two public events during his visit.

Hsia’s delegation is scheduled to attend a forum titled “cross-strait relations and exchanges in the post-pandemic era” in Beijing on Friday, Zhu said.

The delegation is also expected to attend an event jointly held by the All-China Youth Federation and the KMT Department of Youth Affairs to promote exchanges between young entrepreneurs on the two sides of the strait in Shanghai on Feb. 13, Zhu said.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel

The Turkish representative to Taiwan on Wednesday thanked Taiwan’s government and its people for their donations as well as sending search and rescue teams in the aftermath of a magnitude-7.8 earthquake that struck the country and neighboring Syria early Monday, with the confirmed death toll having already passed 5,000.

Speaking to the press while attending a “Pray for Turkey” event in Taipei, Muhammed Berdibek, representative of the Turkish Trade Office in Taipei, said the quake was “one of the biggest disasters of not only our Republican history, but also of our region and the world.”

Immediately after the earthquake, more than 70 countries and 14 international organizations offered aid to Turkey, including Taiwan, he noted.

“In this regard, I would like to thank Taiwan for their solid and immediate support including sending two rescue teams, totaling 130 people and 5 dogs, for rescue and relief efforts,” he said.

He also expressed gratitude for a pledge by Taiwan’s government to donate US$2 million.

The envoy said one day after his office issued a call for people in Taiwan to make in-kind donations to help survivors of the deadly quake, the office had received over 2,800 messages and phone calls as of noon Wednesday.

“I am surprised and really grateful to Taiwanese people for their goodwill and kindnesses,” he said.

However, Berdibek also noted that the office is still looking for a warehouse to make it easier for people to give in-kind donations and simplify processing before the items are sent to Turkey.

The representative said the office will soon make public more details of such arrangements.

The office previously said donations of winter clothing for both adults and children, such as overcoats, pants, sweaters, gloves, scarfs, mufflers, socks, underwear, beret/beanie hats, boots and raincoats are urgently needed to assist those affected by the earthquake.

Other necessities including beds, sleeping pads, sleeping bags, mattresses, blankets, thermoses, flashlights, diapers, sanitary pads, and cleaning and hygiene items are also very welcome, it added.

Meanwhile, Ugur Rifat Karlova, a Turkish-born Taipei-based TV show host told reporters at the same event Wednesday that although he is not from the areas most seriously affected by the earthquake, he has friends who have lost family members during the disaster.

Turkey and Taiwan have shared experiences of strong earthquakes and Taiwanese people are sympathetic about such tragedies, he said.

“I would like to thank you for all of your support and hopefully we will be able to save those that are still trapped in the collapsed building,” he added.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel

A visiting delegation of Swiss parliamentarians paid a visit to Taiwan’s outlying Kinmen county on Wednesday to get an understanding of local residents’ views about relations with China, during which they met with deputy magistrate Li Wen-liang (???).

Li told the visitors that although Kinmen, located a mere six kilometers from the city of Xiamen in China’s Fujian Province, covers an area of merely about 150 square kilometers in total, it plays a sensitive role when it comes to cross-strait relations.

For instance, while tackling water problems in other places is usually just a livelihood issue, it is a political issue for Taiwan and China when it comes to working together to deal with water shortages in Kinmen, according to Li.

Li was referring to some critics in Taiwan who have expressed concerns about the political and national security implications of an arrangement to secure water with China after a deal was signed in 2015 to channel water from Fujian Province to Kinmen.

Since an undersea pipeline started delivering water from Jinjiang in Fujian to Kinmen in 2018, now 70 percent of the outlying island county’s water is sourced from the Chinese city, Li added.

Li also said that the Kinmen County government was planning to do more to address local residents’ needs for a better life.

In addition to the water pipeline, the county government wants to connect to China’s electricity grid through Xiamen, he added.

Li emphasized that meeting the basic living needs of Kinmen’s residents is closely related to cross-strait relations and is an important and sensitive issue which the local government must face up to directly.

Kinmen must strike a balance amid tensions between Taiwan and China, he added.

The delegation is led by National Councilor Fabian Molina, a co-chair of the Swiss-Taiwan parliamentary group, and another co-chair of the Swiss-Taiwan parliamentary group, National Councilor Nicolas Walder.

The other three members of the delegation are national councilors Mustafa Atici, Leonore Porchet, and Yves Nidegger. The delegation are in Taiwan for a six-day visit and will leave on Friday.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel

Taiwan’s top envoy to the United States Hsiao Bi-khim (???) on Tuesday said she had returned home to brief President Tsai Ing-wen (???) and relevant government units on the current state of relations with Washington.

Hsiao, who recently returned to Taiwan for the first time since taking office in 2020, told reporters following a meeting with Foreign Minister Joseph Wu (???) that she had already met with President Tsai, Premier Chen Chien-jen (???) and other senior officials to discuss U.S.-Taiwan relations.

She did not disclose more details of these meetings, saying only that several major projects between Taipei and Washington were ongoing.

“Over the past three years, bilateral relations in terms of two-way trade and investment, on cross-Strait peace and stability, as well as Taiwan’s international participation, have all seen steadfast improvement,” she told reporters at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ (MOFA) Taipei headquarters.

Hsaio added that it was standard MOFA practice for envoys to return to Taiwan to brief government leaders every two years.

Hsiao made the remarks when asked to explain the meaning of her ongoing trip in Taipei, amid reports she is to be picked as the running mate in the 2024 presidential election of incumbent Vice President and ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chair Lai Ching-te (???), the DPP’s likely candidate.

The current envoy to Washington, who has previously described rumors of a vice presidential bid as unfounded, said Tuesday that she would only discuss matters related to the United States while in Taiwan and would not be commenting on domestic politics.

Meanwhile, asked to comment on tensions between Washington and Beijing after a suspected Chinese spy balloon in American airspace, Hsiao said the incident had shocked U.S. society and strained bilateral relations and mutual trust.

She added that she believed the incident would help Washington better understand the situation in Taiwan when the latter is facing daily gray zone operations launched by Beijing.

U.S. fighter jets brought the balloon down over U.S. territorial waters on Saturday, with Washington saying it believed it was monitoring sensitive military sites.

The incident also set up a diplomatic crisis, with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken calling off an imminent trip to China.

Beijing, however, has denied that the balloon was used for spying and claimed it was a civilian airship blown off course.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel

A bipartisan collective of Kinmen County councilors has launched an initiative to turn the frontline islands into a demilitarized zone (DMZ), amid escalating tensions between Taiwan and China.

On Monday, two groups — one a cross-party alliance and the other made up of independent councilors — called for the removal of military personnel and installations from the county as part of a wider effort to promote cross-straits peace.

The two groups also called for closer ties with Xiamen, including pushing for the construction of a bridge linking Kinmen and the Chinese city.

Independent councilor Chen Yang-hu (???), who leads the cross-party alliance, explained that rising tensions between Taiwan and China, and China and the United States had made the people of Kinmen nervous.

“Don’t let history repeat itself,” Chen said, referring to Kinmen’s experiences as a frontline battlefield during the Chinese Civil War.

The Taiwan-controlled Kinmen, which lies roughly 10 kilometers east of Xiamen in Fujian Province, southeastern China, was heavily shelled during the two Taiwan Strait Crises in the 1950s, amid military confrontations between the Republic of China (ROC) government in Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) government on the mainland.

At the height of the conflict, 120,000 Taiwan soldiers were garrisoned in the then-heavily fortified county.

Chen said Kinmen could not now afford to be drawn into cross-strait military conflicts again after most military forces were withdrawn from the frontline islands to Taiwan proper amid warming cross-strait relations in the early 21st century.

As a result, many county councilors hoped that through the two new alliances at the Council, they could get the voices of local residents to be heard by the leaders on the two sides across the Taiwan Strait.

Local residents have reached a “consensus” that no wars should happen in Kinmen, a state of affairs that prompted the formation of the two political alliances at the county council, Chen said.

Once Kinmen is demarcated as a DMZ, Chen suggested replacing its current garrison of around 2,000 soldiers with a coastal patrol or police force.

Moreover, Kinmen could serve as a location for dialogue and meetings between the two sides of the strait, Chen added.

In addition to the DMZ initiative, Chen said that the two alliances are also urging the construction of a bridge linking Kinmen and Xiamen and the development of a Kinmen-Xiamen Special Economic Zone as part of efforts to boost Kinmen’s development.

Building such a bridge, however, will not be possible unless the two sides maintain peaceful relations, the councilor said, adding that the special lifestyle shared by Kinmen and Xiamen people should be maintained to boost the local economy and sustain future development.

Meanwhile, Shih Ming-teh (???), the former chairman of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party who has spent decades promoting the idea of turning outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang counties into a buffer zone, said Tuesday that he was pleased with the emergence of the county councilors’ initiative and was willing to meet with representatives in Kinmen to elaborate on his vision.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel

None of the more than 400 Taiwanese tourists in Turkey were involved in the magnitude 7.8 temblor that rocked the country and Syria on Monday morning, according to the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) on Tuesday.

All 414 tourists from 17 Taiwanese tour groups were safe, the MOTC’s Tourism Bureau said after contacting domestic travel agencies which offer trips to Turkey including Lion Travel, Phoenix Tours, and Richmond Tours.

The bureau said none of the tour groups were in the impacted Turkish regions, and it had not received any emergency report from the travel agencies, but it would keep monitoring developments.

Monday’s earthquake also raised concerns over whether people could cancel tour group bookings to the country. In response, the bureau said if a tour group does not visit the impacted regions, any cancellation would only be for personal reasons and the consumer would have to compensate the travel agency according to related rules and regulations.

So far, the death toll from the earthquake is over 5,000, according to Reuters. The number is expected to increase as search and rescue efforts continue.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel

Law enforcement authorities are investigating the death of a 20-year-old university student from Chiayi City on Tuesday, allegedly at the hands of her boyfriend who was later found dead after apparently jumping from the 19th floor of his apartment building.

According to the Taiwan Chiayi District Prosecutors Office, an autopsy of the victim, surnamed Lee (?), will be conducted Wednesday to determine the cause of death after she was found to have sustained 12 stab wounds and there were signs of strangulation.

She also had COVID-19.

Local police said they acted on a report at 10:30 p.m. Monday and found Lee lying on a patch of grass near a parking lot in Chiayi City.

They found that her heart had stopped and tried to revive her with CPR, but she was later pronounced dead at 11:36 p.m., according to police.

Eyewitnesses interviewed by police said they saw a man attack Lee and then flee from the scene in a car, and as rescuers were trying to save Lee, the 27-year-old suspect, surnamed Wang (?), was driving north to his apartment in Taoyuan, where he worked as a plumber.

Wang jumped from the 19th floor of the building and died before police arrived, and a paring knife that may have been used in the attack on Lee was found in Wang’s car, police said.

According to the initial findings of their investigation, police said Lee, who was studying at a university in central Taiwan, knew Wang from the Internet and the two had been seeing each other frequently in recent months.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel