Relations with the Vatican will remain steadfast after the election of a new Pope, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Michel Lu (呂慶龍) said yesterday.
Lu was responding to concerns whether diplomatic ties could be affected following the election of a successor to the late Pope John Paul II.
Over the past 20-plus years, Lu said, China has sought to normalize its relations with the Vatican while it has continued to suppress religious freedoms and arrest Catholic clergymen and followers on the other.
Noting that religious freedoms and the well-being of all Catholic followers around the world are the top concerns of the Vatican, Lu said diplomatic ties or politics are just the means, not the end, for the Holy See.
If China fails to respect religious freedoms or allow its people to enjoy the freedom of assembly, Lu said, it would be very difficult for the Vatican to forge diplomatic ties with Beijing anytime soon.
In the foreseeable future, Lu said, Beijing is not expected to adjust its policy and attitude toward human rights and religious freedoms.
Against this backdrop, Lu said he doesn't think that the Vatican will forge diplomatic ties after a new Pope is designated.
Moreover, he said the Vatican has consistently been satisfied with Taiwan's contributions to international humanitarian aid.
Over the years, Lu said, Taiwan has established a steadfast, peaceful and merciful partnership with the Vatican.
In its long history, Lu said, the Vatican has never taken the initiative to sever diplomatic ties with any other country.
Asked who will serve as Taiwan's top envoy to attend the new Pope's investiture, Lu said that it is up to the Presidential Office to decide.
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) attended John Paul II's funeral in the Vatican on April 8.
Because of China's diplomatic embargo, the Vatican is the nation's only diplomatic ally in Europe.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching