hang said the ministry had been informed by th

e since 1997. China's central bank has rolled out a series of measures to try to tame inflation.



Standard & Poor's downgraded GREECE'S credit rating by another two notches. A team of officials from Greece, the European Commission and the IMF is due to report on progress in June, as it becomes clearer that the country's current bail-out package is not working.



Stuart Gulliver, HSBC'S new boss, confirmed that the bank is to scale back its global business. Only around a quarter of its retail-banking operations provide satisfactory returns, though Mr Gulliver did not say from which countries HSBC would withdraw. The bank is exploring a sell-off of its branches and credit-card business in America, to refocus on corporate banking there.



An 18-month dispute between BRITISH AIRWAYS and its cabin crew that led to the disruption of BA flights last year seemed set to end following negotiations between unions and management.



Complaint lodged after Vietnam issued visa stamped with ‘Province of China’

Taipei Times, 11 May 2011



Taipei has lodged a complaint with Vietnam and demanded a correction after a lawmaker produced a copy of a Vietnamese temporary residence card issued by Hanoi to a Taiwanese that was stamped “Taiwan Province of China,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. “The ministry spoke with Nguyen Ba Cu, director of the Vietnam Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei, by telephone to express the government’s serious concern and to protest the matter,” ministry spokesman James Chang told reporters.

While questioning Premier Wu Den-yih at the legislature, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Ting-fei showed a copy of the document, saying: “Visas issued by Vietnam to Taiwanese state that Taiwan is a province of China.” It was subsequently determined that the document Chen said was a “working visa” given to her by a Taiwanese working in Vietnam was in fact a temporary residence card, in which “Taiwan Province of China” was stamped in the space left for applicants to write their nationality or passport number. The temporary residence card was issued on Dec. 12, 2008, and was valid for three years.

Chen said the holder of the document did not initially notice the reference to “Taiwan Province of China” when he renewed the document in 2008, but the holder was sure that the reference to his nationality in previous documents stated “Republic of China [ROC].” “After noticing the change, he said he questioned Vietnamese authorities and was told the change was made with the consent of Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” Chen said. The ministry denies the allegation.

Chang said the ministry had been informed by the Vietnam Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei that visas issued by Vietnam to holders of ROC passports only contain the word “Taiwan,” and that only visa exemption certificates issued to Taiwanese spouses or children of Vietnamese citizens used the designation “Taiwan Province of China” when referring to nationality. The ministry has asked for corrections to be made to the visa exemption certificates, Chang said. The ministry received a Vietnamese official yesterday afternoon, but details of the meeting were not available as of press time.


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le, analysts say. Carlyle Thayer, a professor at Australian Defence Force Academy at the University of New South Wales, said that if Vietnam uses disproportionate force to make its point, China could seize on it to claim that Vietnam is the aggressor. "China's intent is to intimidate Vietnam into backing down or provoke it into taking action that would divide the other Asean members," Mr. Thayer said. Vietnam, he said, "must be careful not to take steps that make [itself] the problem."

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