With no response yet from the Athens Olympic Organizing Com-mittee to the nation's protest against the removal of its advertisements, Taiwan is scheduled to launch a new promotional campaign via alternate channels today, the first day of the Games.
"It's very important not to give up, especially when we're in a politically difficult situation," said David Lee (李南陽), director of the Department of International Information Services under the Government Information Office (GIO).
"If we give up and cave in to the pressure of China, we're bound to lose our voice in the international arena and diminish the nation's profile," he said.
Meanwhile, two European human rights groups have voiced their support for the nation and lodged a complaint to Olympics officials.
Olympic Watch, based in the Czech Republic, has said the groups are "extremely concerned" that China's pressure may have prompted airport officials to block or remove Taiwan's promotional posters and billboards. The Germany-based International Society for Human Rights has denounced China's bullying behavior and said that Taiwan's freedom of speech should be safeguarded.
According to Lee, the GIO has commissioned CNN International to air a 30-second promotional commercial on its Europe channel from today through Aug. 29, and on the Asia channel today and tomorrow. It is estimated that the two channels will reach an audience of over 102 million.
The GIO also plans to run a half-page ad in the International Herald Tribune on Aug. 17. The paper, delivered to more than 180 countries every day, boasts a worldwide circulation of about 264,000.
The GIO reported yesterday that the Olympic organizing committee had asked that Taiwan's advertisements and publicity posters be removed. The GIO said that it believed the request came after pressure from China.
The ads are part of the GIO's 150,000-euro publicity campaign during the Olympics. In addition to placing posters on 500 luggage carts at Athens International Airport and the exteriors of 50 of the city's electric trams, the GIO had also planned on having large outdoor billboards erected along the expressway from the international airport to downtown Athens.
While the ads on the 500 luggage carts have already been removed, Lee said that some posted on the 50 electric trams still remained as of yesterday.
"This is not the first case of China suppressing our diplomatic space, and it's definitely not the last one," Lee said.
The country's representative office in Greece yesterday told the Taipei Times that despite the incident it will make efforts to increase the nation's visibility.
"We have mapped out a contingency plan to promote Taiwan, such as accepting local media interviews, running ads in the broadcast media and other possibilities which I am not allowed to reveal now for fear of further oppression from China," said Eric Chiang (蔣昌成), director of the information section of Taiwan's representative office in Italy, which has been assigned to help resolve the advertisement controversy.
Chiang told the Taipei Times that the organizing committee adopted an arbitrary manner. When asked what the reason was, a committee member responded, "I am not obliged to give you any reason," according to Chiang.
The GIO has made it clear that it would withhold the 150,000-euro campaign fee should the committee not honor the contract signed with Taiwan.
With no sign of seeing the contract honored, Lee said that the GIO will use the money to pay for the ads run on CNN and in the International Herald Tribune, as well as for the full-page color ad run in the Olympics special report of Time Europe, due out next Monday.
The money will also pay for the same ad appearing in the September issue of BBC On Air magazine, which has a circulation of 20,000.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS