Beijing’s behavior was “out of control,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday after a Taiwanese-Spanish academic said that China’s embassy in Spain pressured the University of Salamanca to cancel a Taiwanese culture event.
“Today I decided to go public with the email #China’s embassy in Spain sent to coerce the University of #Salamanca into cancelling “#Taiwan Cultural Days” on October 2017,” Shiany Perez-Cheng (鄭夏霓) tweeted late on Saturday.
Perez-Chen is a professor of international relations at the university and a leading organizer of the university’s Taiwan Culture Day.
Photo from Shiany Perez-Cheng’s Twitter account
A letter attached to the tweet that Perez-Chen said was an English-language version of the embassy’s e-mail said: “Inviting to [sic] the so-called ‘Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of Taiwan’ to lecture causes confusion and misunderstanding about the Taiwan problem.”
“There are many incorrect expressions in the cultural days’ program and in the promotional materials,” it said. “Those arguments do not fall in line with the Spanish government, who has long followed the ‘one China principle.’”
“We wouldn’t like your institution to be used by Taiwanese authorities as a platform for its political agenda, it would affect the university’s good relations with China,” it said.
The letter demanded that the university accept the “one China” principle and take measures to “avoid and eliminate the adverse effects.”
The defilement of a storied European university is the latest instance of China’s continued persecution of Taiwan, the ministry said in a statement.
Beijing’s hinderance of Taiwanese participation in free academic and cultural exchanges is “barbaric,” the ministry said, adding that the government was dismayed and angered.
Beijing’s all-out effort to squeeze Taiwan’s international space, instead of achieving “the union of souls across the [Taiwan] Strait” touted by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in March, would serve only to invite the “anger and even scorn for China of the Taiwanese,” the ministry said.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said it expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-Wong tomorrow, which it said would possibly make landfall near central Taiwan. As of 2am yesterday, Fung-Wong was about 1,760km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving west-northwest at 26kph. It is forecast to reach Luzon in the northern Philippines by tomorrow, the CWA said. After entering the South China Sea, Typhoon Fung-Wong is likely to turn northward toward Taiwan, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張峻堯) said, adding that it would likely make landfall near central Taiwan. The CWA expects to issue a land
Taiwan’s exports soared to an all-time high of US$61.8 billion last month, surging 49.7 percent from a year earlier, as the global frenzy for artificial intelligence (AI) applications and new consumer electronics powered shipments of high-tech goods, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. It was the first time exports had exceeded the US$60 billion mark, fueled by the global boom in AI development that has significantly boosted Taiwanese companies across the international supply chain, Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) told a media briefing. “There is a consensus among major AI players that the upcycle is still in its early stage,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said it is expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong this afternoon and a land warning tomorrow. As of 1pm, the storm was about 1,070km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, and was moving west-northwest at 28 to 32kph, according to CWA data. The storm had a radius of 250km, with maximum sustained winds of 173kph and gusts reaching 209kph, the CWA added. The storm is forecast to pass near Luzon in the Philippines before entering the South China Sea and potentially turning northward toward Taiwan, the CWA said. CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張峻堯) said
‘SECRETS’: While saying China would not attack during his presidency, Donald Trump declined to say how Washington would respond if Beijing were to take military action US President Donald Trump said that China would not take military action against Taiwan while he is president, as the Chinese leaders “know the consequences.” Trump made the statement during an interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes program that aired on Sunday, a few days after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in South Korea. “He [Xi] has openly said, and his people have openly said at meetings, ‘we would never do anything while President Trump is president,’ because they know the consequences,” Trump said in the interview. However, he repeatedly declined to say exactly how Washington would respond in
RSS