It would not be a tough decision for the Holy See, Taiwan’s only ally in Europe, to switch diplomatic recognition to China, but the timing is not ripe, diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks on Aug. 30 showed.
A cable dated April 24, 2009, quotes Holy See Ministry of Foreign Affairs Country Director for China Monsignor Gianfranco -Rota-Graziosi as saying that “the Vatican would make alternative arrangements short of diplomatic relations with Taiwan, if this would improve ties with Beijing or religious freedom in the mainland.”
“For the Vatican, Rota said, diplomatic relations are a means to promote religious freedom, not/not [sic] an end to themselves. The goal, he added, is to create space for the Church to operate free of -government interference,” the cable says.
The senior Vatican official made the point to Cartin Noyes, the then-charge d’affaires of the US embassy in the Vatican on April 22, 2009.
Rota had said that it was “common knowledge: the Holy See would downgrade its relationship with Taiwan ‘overnight’ with the right word from Beijing,” as recorded in a cable dated Nov 24, 2006, originating from the US -embassy in the Vatican.
Noyes said that Rota, having covered China at the Holy See’s Secretariat of State for 19 years, “was not optimistic current PRC [People’s Republic of China] authorities would relinquish their power over religious groups.”
Even though Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) appears to be more open than his predecessor, Jiang Zemin (江澤民), “he does not seem to be as influential — and so not able to push through a rapprochement with the Church,” he said.
Another cable dated Feb. 4, 2009, from the US consulate in Guangzhou, China, quotes Guangzhou’s Bishop Joseph Gan as saying that the issue of Taiwan-Vatican relations was a relatively easy one to work out.
The issues of Taiwan-Vatican relations and the recognition and ordination of bishops could be resolved “in a day.”
“But religious freedom was a far more contentious, indeed potentially irreconcilable matter,” the cable quotes Gan as saying.
Over the years, the Chinese government has continued to insist that the Holy See break diplomatic relations with Taiwan before it will discuss control over the appointment of bishops, what it described as two main obstacles for advancing its relationship with the Vatican, but the Holy See wants it the other way around.
A cable dated Jan. 29 last year shows that US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had asked overseas posts to provide information about any possible change in the triangular relationship between Beijing, the Holy See and Taiwan after China expressed willingness to permit Caritas’ charity work in the country.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
RSS