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Taiwan removed from list of supporting countries

Taiwan's name was yesterday removed from a Web site listing the countries that have recognized Kosovo after the site was bombarded with e-mails. This came a day after Kosovars expressed their appreciation for Taiwan's recognition of the newly declared independent country.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday issued a statement congratulating Kosovo on its independence.

"The [Taiwanese] government is delighted that the people of Kosovo have the fruits of independence, democracy and freedom to look forward to. May Kosovo enjoy a bright and prosperous future," the statement said.

China has said that Taiwan does not have the right to recognize Kosovo.

Minister of Foreign Affairs James Huang (黃志芳) nevertheless announced Taiwan's official recognition of Kosovo during a press conference on Tuesday, saying that Taiwan was interested in establishing friendships and forging diplomatic ties with all countries that uphold the values of freedom and democracy.

Around 10am yesterday morning, Taiwan had been added to a list of "countries that have recognized or announced the recognition of the `Republic of Kosova'" at www.kosovothanksyou.com. The list included the names of 17 other countries. The site is not affiliated with the Kosovar government, but a government Web site links to it.

The words "xie xie" (謝謝) and "duo xie" (多謝), meaning "thank you," appeared next to the country name "Taiwan."

At 3pm, the spelling had been changed to "sie sie" and then "hsieh hsieh." Both are Romanizations of the Mandarin for "thank you," one in the Tongyong system and the other in Wade-Giles.

Tongyong is the official Romanization system used by the government, which has abandoned the Wade-Giles system.

However, Taiwan was removed from the list of countries at around 4pm. Along with the removal, the Web site briefly posted a note saying that the Web master had been bombarded with e-mails from both Taiwan and China expressing concern about having Taiwan on the list, and therefore the site decided to include only UN member states on the list.

The Web master had not responded to the Taipei Times' request for comment via e-mail as of press time.

Meanwhile, the Central News Agency reported on Tuesday that Taiwan's official recognition made the headlines in the Kosovar newspaper Kosova Sot.

People in the capital, Pristina, did not hesitate to express their appreciation when they ran into Taiwanese on the street, the report said.
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