Submit your Article

Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen met Monday with a delegation of US Congress members in a further sign of support among American lawmakers for the self-governing island that China claims as its own territory, Associated Press reported.

Taiwanese media showed the delegation arriving for the talks, but details of the meeting were not immediately released. 

It comes less than two weeks after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, which prompted days of threatening military exercises by China, including the firing of missiles over the island and into the Taiwan Strait. 

China has also sent warplanes and navy ships across the waterway’s median, which has long been a buffer between the sides that separated amid civil war in 1949. China regards formal contacts between US politicians and the island’s government as support for its independence from Beijing. 

China says it wants to use peaceful means to bring Taiwan under its control, but its recent saber rattling has emphasized its military threat.

The five-member delegation is led by Democratic Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts and is to meet with other government and private sector representatives. Reducing tensions in the Taiwan Strait and investments in Taiwan’s crucial semiconductor industry are expected to be key topics of discussion, according to Associated Press.

The other members of the delegation are Republican Rep. Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen, a delegate from American Samoa, and Democrats John Garamendi and Alan Lowenthal from California and Don Beyer from Virginia.

President Bidya Devi Bhandari sent the bill to amend the Citizenship Act back to the Parliament for reconsideration on Sunday.

Sagar Aryal, spokesperson at the President's office, said that the President sent the bill on Citizenship Act back to the Parliament citing that it needs reconsideration.

He said that the bill on Nepal Citizenship Act, 2063 was submitted before the President for the certification as per the Article 113 (2) of the Constitution of Nepal.

Earlier, the bill was endorsed from the Parliament as per the Article 113 (3) of the Constitution.

Netra Bikram Chand-led Communist Party of Nepal spokesperson Khadga Bahadur Bishwokarma left for China on Sunday.

He left for Chengdu at the invitation of the Chinese Communist Party at 12:45 pm on Air China flight CA 438 today.

The Lalitpur District Court, a few days ago, had issued an arrest warrant against Chand and Bishwokarma among other leaders on the charge of possessing arms, crimes against the state and detonating Improvised Explosive Devices.

Though the arrest warrant was issued against him on August 1, he left for China via the Tribhuvan International Airport.

TIA Chief DIG Shyam Gyawali said that he was unaware about Bishwokarma's departure to China,

Madhes Province Chief Minister Lalbabu Raut along with other ministers staged a sit-in on the premises of the office of Province Chief in Janakpur from Sunday demanding adjustment of police force.

Home and Communications Minister Bharat Prasad Sah said that the sit-in will be continued for a week against the federal government.

Chief Minister Raut said that they were compelled to stage the sit-in after the federal government turned a blind eye to their demand of adjusting the police force despite repeated requests.

He claimed that the Madhes government took this step for the successful implementation of federalism.

“It is not possible to develop the province without its own police administration,” Chief Minister Raut said, adding, “As per the constitution, the province government has been given the authority to maintain peace and security. The protest will be continued until the federal government gives the rights provided by the constitution of the province.”

Chief Minister Raut, Home and Communications Minister Bharat Prasad Sah, Energy and Drinking Water Development Minister Om Prakash Sharma, Physical Infrastructure Development Minister Ram Saroj Yadav, Home and Communications State Minister Rubi Kumiar Karna, Province Assembly members Sailesh Yadav, Chameli Devi Das, Saraswati Chaudhary and Pramila Devi Das had participated in the sit-in.