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.
An Emirates flight from Dubai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday afternoon, the first service of the airline since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. Flight EK366 took off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 3:51am yesterday and landed at 4:02pm before taxiing to the airport’s D6 gate at Terminal 2 at 4:08pm, data from the airport and FlightAware, a global flight tracking site, showed. Of the 501 passengers on the flight, 275 were Taiwanese, including 96 group tour travelers, the data showed. Tourism Administration Deputy Director-General Huang He-ting (黃荷婷) greeted Taiwanese passengers at the airport and
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
STRAIT OF HORMUZ: In the case of a prolonged blockade by Iran, Taiwan would look to sources of LNG outside the Middle East, including Australia and the US Taiwan would not have to ration power due to a shortage of natural gas, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday, after reports that the Strait of Hormuz was closed amid the conflict in the Middle East. The government has secured liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies for this month and contingency measures are in place if the conflict extends into next month, Kung told lawmakers. Saying that 25 percent of Taiwan’s natural gas supplies are from Qatar, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) asked about the situation in light of the conflict. There would be “no problems” with
RSS