Taiwan's ambassador to Senegal, Huang Yun-cheh (
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Michel Lu (呂慶龍) said that Huang had met with Foreign Affairs Minister Mark Chen (陳唐山) on Monday afternoon for a detailed report on the matter. Lu said that Huang had promised to shoulder the responsibility for the nation losing another ally.
Lu said that as Huang's ambassadorship had been a political appointment, his position was terminated because he had nothing left to do in Senegal.
Senegal's move came as a shock to the nation as it gave no prior warning that it would resume diplomatic ties with Beijing. Huang was heavily criticized for not seeing any warning signs of an imminent diplomatic setback.
Senegal first established diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 1960, but these were severed in 1964. In 1996, the two countries restored relations, which lasted until last Tuesday, when Senegal switched its diplomatic allegiance to Beijing.
According to Lu, Huang attributed his being unaware of the situation to "deliberate concealment" by Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade, who allegedly leaked the news to only a few aides around him. A number of top-ranking officials who have the president's ear were allegedly excluded from Wade's scheme to re-establish ties with Beijing.
Huang refused to speak to the press yesterday, saying he had already reported to Chen in detail, Lu said.
In other developments, it was reported on Saturday that Taiwan's relations with the Holy See are under threat, as the Vatican is preparing to break its ties with Taiwan and establish diplomatic relations with China within 18 months.
An anonymous source in the Vatican was quoted as saying that "it is not a question of whether the Vatican will reach a deal with Beijing, but when."
The issue that up to now has prevented the Vatican from establishing ties with Beijing is the Pope's right to appoint bishops in China. Officially Catholics in China can only attend state-sanctioned churches in a "Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association" led by bishops appointed by Beijing. However, underground Catholic practitioners reportedly number more than 8 million -- and are often persecuted by Chinese authorities.
Lu said he hadn't heard of the Vatican's alleged 18-month time-frame to beak ties with Taiwan and reiterated that, in the foreseeable future, China's lack of respect for religious freedom will remain a major block to normalizing its relations with the Vatican.
Environmental groups yesterday filed an appeal with the Executive Yuan, seeking to revoke the environmental impact assessment (EIA) conditionally approved in February for the Hsieh-ho Power Plant’s planned fourth liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving station off the coast of Keelung. The appeal was filed jointly by the Protect Waimushan Seashore Action Group, the Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association and the Keelung City Taiwan Head Cultural Association, which together held a news conference outside the Executive Yuan in Taipei. Explaining the reasons for the appeal, Wang Hsing-chih (王醒之) of the Protect Waimushan Seashore Action Group said that the EIA failed to address
Taipei on Thursday held urban resilience air raid drills, with residents in one of the exercises’ three “key verification zones” reporting little to no difference compared with previous years, despite government pledges of stricter enforcement. Formerly known as the Wanan exercise, the air raid drills, which concluded yesterday, are now part of the “Urban Resilience Exercise,” which also incorporates the Minan disaster prevention and rescue exercise. In Taipei, the designated key verification zones — where the government said more stringent measures would be enforced — were Songshan (松山), Zhongshan (中山) and Zhongzheng (中正) districts. Air raid sirens sounded at 1:30pm, signaling the
The number of people who reported a same-sex spouse on their income tax increased 1.5-fold from 2020 to 2023, while the overall proportion of taxpayers reporting a spouse decreased by 4.4 percent from 2014 to 2023, Ministry of Finance data showed yesterday. The number of people reporting a spouse on their income tax trended upward from 2014 to 2019, the Department of Statistics said. However, the number decreased in 2020 and 2021, likely due to a drop in marriages during the COVID-19 pandemic and the income of some households falling below the taxable threshold, it said. The number of spousal tax filings rebounded
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
RSS