Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Ministry admits Abe took taxi while on Taiwan trip

Taipei Times

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday admitted for the first time that former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe took a taxi during a late night dinner with several opposition party politicians during a recent two-day visit to Taiwan.

The admission came after ministry officials had been insistent, amid growing questions raised over the diplomatic lapse, that government-supplied courtesy cars were provided at all times during Abe’s visit.

Notice from ministry sparks outrage

Taipei Times

A notice issued by the Ministry of Education asking the country’s largest college bulletin board system (BBS) — Professional Technology Temple (PTT) — to tone down its political rhetoric has attracted outrage after being posted online.

The one-page notice was sent last month to National Taiwan University, which oversees the PTT site frequented by hundreds of thousands of users daily.

Cross-strait security ‘worrisome’: expert

Taipei Times

A leading US academic on Taiwan said Beijing understands that it has an interest in keeping President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in power and for that reason is “not currently pushing its larger agenda.”

Richard Bush, director of the Brookings Institution’s Center for Northeast Asian Policy, told a Washington conference that how China deals with the Taiwan issue would be a “litmus test” on what kind of great power it would eventually be.

Former president Chen Shui-bian seeks release

Taipei Times

Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday asked to be released from jail while appealing a 20-year graft sentence, saying that he had sent back most of the money that had been wired abroad.

After the Special Investigation Panel confirmed it had received almost all of the NT$662 million (US$22 million) Chen’s family had wired into Swiss bank accounts, Chen’s attorney said he was filing an application to secure the former president’s release.

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