Diplomatic Briefing
Your exclusive news aggregator handpicked daily!Archive for Taiwan
Newsline: US names career diplomat to Taiwan office
The United States has named a career diplomat to head its de facto embassy in Taiwan. The American Institute in Taiwan announced that 27-year State Department veteran Christopher Marut will become its leader in August. AIT was established in 1979 after the U.S. transferred diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing. Despite its irregular status, it is one of the larger American diplomatic outposts in Asia. Marut previously was deputy consul general at the U.S. Consulate General in Hong Kong and Director of the Office of Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Island Affairs in Washington. He has been posted to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing and in Taiwan as science and technology officer.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2018162647_apastaiwanusdiplomat.html
Newsline: Taiwanese Diplomat Murdered in Dominican Republic
A Taiwanese diplomat was found slain Tuesday in her apartment in Santo Domingo’s university district, police reported. Julia Ou, 52, had stab wounds and appeared to have been beaten and strangled. The door to the apartment had not been forced open, the police said in a communique, adding that they have begun to question the woman’s neighbours and the people who work in the building. Jose Wang, second secretary in the Press Office at the Taiwanese Embassy in the Dominican Republic, told EFE that several of the victim’s friends had called her by telephone several times to find out why she had not come to work and, when they did not receive an answer, they decided to go to her home. “When they arrived at the apartment they found blood stains in front of the door and decided to call the police,” said Wang. Ou had been posed in Santo Domingo for about a year.
http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=135201
Newsline: Taiwan diplomat ‘impeached’ over abuse of Filipina maids in US
Taiwan impeached a diplomat who was deported from the United States for her involvement in a case of abuse of her Filipina maids, officials said, accusing her of “hurting the country’s image.” Liu Hsien-hsien, former director of Taiwan’s mission in Kansas City, Missouri, was deported in February after she pleaded guilty to charges of mistreating two maids from the Philippines working at her US home. “What she did violated the local law where she was assigned… This has severely hurt the country’s image,” said the Control Yuan, the island’s top government ombudsman in charge of disciplinary punishment of civil servants. One maid said Liu had taken her passport, banned her from leaving the house without permission, made her work 16 to 18 hour days at a quarter of the agreed wages, monitored her with surveillance cameras and restricted her sleeping. Liu, 64, has defended herself insisting she did not abuse the maids, but the watchdog body’s impeachment proposal means the case will be sent to the Commission on the Disciplinary Sanctions of Functionaries. The commission will decide on a penalty, ranging from a demerit to dismissal. Liu was arrested in November after one maid sought help from a Filipino she met at a grocery store. The diplomat reached a plea deal with prosecutors that allowed her to avoid spending up to five years in prison on charges of fraud in foreign labor contracting. She was sentenced to time served on a fraud charge and was ordered to pay $80,044 in restitution to the two maids, as well as a fine of $11,040 to cover the full costs of her incarceration and deportation. Washington switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979 but has remained a key ally and a leading arms supplier to the island.
http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/254465/pinoyabroad/taiwan-diplomat-impeached-over-abuse-of-pinay-maids-in-us
Newsline: Taiwan-U.S. diplomatic immunity treaty to be reviewed
The United States has agreed to Taiwan’s request to discuss the terms of an existing diplomatic immunity treaty between the two sides, in the wake of the recent arrest of a Taiwanese diplomat by the FBI, Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said. The MOFA said it has proposed a comprehensive review of the privileges, exemptions and immunities in the treaty so that Taiwanese diplomats in the U.S. will be guaranteed better rights in the future. The U.S. has agreed to Taiwan’s request to review the treaty, which was signed in October 1980, the MOFA said. The terms of the treaty became an issue after Jacqueline Liu, director of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Kansas City, was arrested by the FBI on Nov. 10, 2011 on changes of overworking and underpaying her two Filipino housekeepers. A week later, Liu entered a plea bargain. On Friday, she was sentenced to the time she had already served, ordered to pay US$80,044 in restitution to the two women and was given a deportation order. The MOFA said the case highlighted that there was a “considerable difference” in the two sides’ interpretation and execution of the diplomatic immunity treaty. Taiwan had argued that Liu should have been granted immunity, while the U.S. maintained that her status was similar to that of a consular officer, which meant that immunity would have applied only within the scope of her authorized functions. Chang said a special MOFA team will carry out an internal investigation into the Liu case when she returns to Taiwan.
http://focustaiwan.tw/ShowNews/WebNews_Detail.aspx?Type=aIPL&ID=201201280004
Newsline: US diplomat unhurt in fatal Taiwan car accident
A spokesman says the de facto U.S. ambassador to Taiwan was unhurt in a car accident that led to the death of a local man.Taiwan police say a 21-year-old motorcyclist hit a taxi first before grazing American Institute in Taiwan Director William Stanton’s chauffeur-driven car. The motorcyclist was killed after he swerved from the impact and careened under a truck. The institute is the de facto U.S. Embassy in Taiwan. AIT Spokesman Christopher Kavanagh confirmed Stanton’s presence at the scene of the accident, and said Stanton was unhurt.
Newsline: Taiwan offers an official apology to Fiji
Taiwan apologized to Frances Ligalevu, Fiji’s representative to Taiwan, over a case of alleged sexual misconduct by a Taiwanese diplomat toward a Fijian female employee. James Tien, director-general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said he had met Ligalevu and apologized on behalf of the ministry. Leon Liu, First Secretary of the Trade Mission of the Republic of China in the Republic of the Fiji Islands, who confessed in writing to sexually harassing an employee on two occasions, was given two demerits by the ministry and ordered to return home by Thursday next week. “I hope Frances Ligalevu will convey our apology to her government and people. This should be regarded as an isolated case as we [the mission] have been there for a long time and nothing like this has ever happened before,” Tien said. Ligalevu said this was an isolated case and she was aware that Liu had settled the case by paying a settlement to the female employee, Tien said. Representative to Fiji Victor Chin, who is alleged to have had an affair with a Japanese employee at the Japanese embassy in Fiji and using public funds to pay for dates, yesterday returned to Fiji to explain the case to the Fijian government. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Gao Jyh-peng accused Chin of using public funds to buy the Japanese employee a pearl necklace, which Chin denied, claiming it was a gift from Fijian politicians. Gao sued Chin for corruption and forgery.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2011/07/01/2003507138
Newsline: Taiwan diplomat narrowly escapes being taken hostage
An official with Taiwan’s embassy in Guatemala was taken hostage at gunpoint in the country’s capital but managed to escape after drawing out the situation and getting help from local police, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA). Lin Shyo-shiun, deputy director of Taiwan’s Technical Liaison Office in Guatemala, was abducted by a group of armed youths while he was driving to work. But he was later freed after police chased the kidnappers to an area just outside Guatemala City. MOFA spokesman James Chang said at a press briefing that the incident was a random kidnapping case and that Lin was not hurt and appeared to be in good condition. An spokesman from Taiwan’s embassy in Guatemala, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Central News Agency by phone that Lin helped his cause by not upsetting the armed men. According to the spokesman and details released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the two kidnappers sat in the front seat and ordered Lin to sit in the back, setting off the car’s alarm. Fearing that the noise would irritate the gunmen and make them trigger-happy, Lin offered to move behind the wheel so he could silence the alarm. Just as the men were changing positions in the vehicle, a police car passed by. The officers were alerted by the strange movement in Lin’s car and ordered it to pull over, according to the spokesman, who did not specify if there was a chase as reported. Fearing that if the police discovered they had interrupted a kidnapping, a gunfight would be unavoidable, Lin told the police that the two men were his friends, according to the spokesman. The police remained suspicious, however, and asked the three men to step out of the car. The police searched them and found that all was clear — the gunmen having left their guns in the car — but Lin whispered to the police that he was kidnapped, leading them to arrest the kidnappers and allow him to escape. Sun Ta-cheng, Taiwan’s ambassador to Guatemala, expressed admiration for Lin’s poise in dealing with the situation, which could have ended up in disaster, the embassy spokesman said. According to the AFP report, the two men arrested were Jorge Isaac Garcia, 27, and Nestor Juarez Perez, 24, and two pistols were confiscated at the scene.
http://focustaiwan.tw/ShowNews/WebNews_Detail.aspx?ID=201006010022&Type=aSOC
Newsline: Taiwan’s embassy in Haiti rejects China’s suggestion of forming joint rescue team
Taiwan has rejected a suggestion by China that Taipei and Beijing form a joint search-and-rescue team in earthquake- hit Haiti. Chang Tai-fu, a counselor in Taiwan’s embassy in Haiti, mentioned this while briefing the Taiwan rescue team, which arrived in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince from the Dominican Republic. Chang said an official from the Chinese rescue team suggested through a Taiwanese businessman that the Taiwanese and Chinese rescue teams join. ‘I refused by saying that the two teams have different purposes. The Taiwan team works here with the aim of helping our diplomatic ally Haiti. The Chinese team’s priority is searching for UN members,’ he said. China, which does not have diplomatic ties with Haiti, has sent 142 peacekeeping police to Haiti as part of the UN peacekeeping force. China became one of the first countries to send rescue teams to the Caribbean nation. China regards Taiwan as its breakaway province and is seeking Taiwan’s unification with the Chinese mainland. But Taiwan, which is recognized by only 23 countries, insists it is a sovereignty country which wants to develop peaceful ties with China but does not want to fall under China’s rule.
