《TAIPEI TIMES》 Expatriates returning for National Day

FIVE-YEAR HIGH: A California resident was honored with a certificate for being the 5,000th returnee. Hundreds of foreign dignitaries have also arrived for the festivities

By Lu Yi-hsuan / Staff reporter, with CNA

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The number of Taiwanese expatriates returning for Double Ten National Day festivities is expected to reach a five-year high of 6,393 people, the Overseas Community Affairs Council （OCAC） said.

It is great to see so many compatriots returning to Taiwan, Overseas Community Affairs Council Minister Wu Hsin-hsing （吳新興） said yesterday after presenting a certificate and a bouquet to the 5,000th returnee, Liao Meng-su （廖孟素）.

Originally from Taichung, Liao now works at a government agency in Sacramento, California, and has not been back to Taiwan for 10 years, he said.

Liao said the advertisements for this year’s Double Ten National Day were very creative, and she was delighted find out that she was the 5,000th returnee.

The council said it has spared no effort to promote today’s celebrations by holding a number of events for expatriates, such as singing contests and family reunions, as well as launching expatriate discount cards and publicizing tours around Taiwan.

Online registration with the council showed that 6,393 people are returning for the holiday, with more than 5,000 having checked in as of yesterday, council data showed.

Most of the expatriates are coming from the US, while some have returned from Kenya, Namibia, the Solomon Islands and Belize.

The number of expatriates returning for the holiday peaked in 2011, when the Republic of China celebrated its 100th anniversary, with more than 20,000 people, the council said, adding that the numbers dropped steadily over the next five years, to 6,016 people in 2012; 5,515 in 2013; 5,386 in 2014; 5,228 in 2015 and 3,805 last year.

Fewer expatriates returned for Double Ten National Day last year, as many came in May for President Tsai Ing-wen’s （蔡英文） inauguration on May 20, it said.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said that hundreds of foreign dignitaries, including Tuvaluan Prime Minister Enele Sosene Sopoaga, Honduran Second Vice President Ana Rossana Guevara Pinto and Paraguay’s Supreme Court chief justice Luis Maria Benitez Riera, are to attend today’s festivities.

St Lucian Senate President Andy Daniel, St Lucian House Speaker Leonne Theodore-John and Swazi Minister of Home Affairs Tsandzile Dlamini are also visiting, ministry spokesman Andrew Lee （李憲章） said.

As usual, the Japanese delegation is the largest national delegation taking part in the National Day celebrations.

The 170-member delegation is led by former Japanese minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries Tokuichiro Tamazawa and Kazuo Aichi, who has held the defense and environment portfolios, Lee said.

Japan-ROC Diet Members’ Consultative Council chief Yasuo Hashimoto is another member of the delegation.

The US delegation is led by former American Institute in Taiwan chairman Raymond Burghardt and former US ambassador to Myanmar Derek Mitchell, Lee said.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES