Minister of Foreign Affairs James Huang (
Huang said diplomatic relations need not be "in all directions or across-the-board," but should focus "on quality, not on quantity."
The minister made the remarks while visiting Africa to deliver letters of invitation from President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to leaders of Malawi, Swaziland, Gambia, Burkina Faso and Sao Tome and Principe to attend a leadership summit in Taiwan in September.
He said China's growing clout had impacted on Taiwan a great deal, reducing the number of the nation's allies in Africa to five.
Huang said the role Africa played in the world should not be underestimated.
The minister said Africa, with its vast land and rich resources, was important to Taiwan from the perspectives of both international politics and trade. The government would do its utmost to cement relations with its African allies, he said.
Huang said Taiwan hoped to develop constructive partnerships with African countries through the leadership summit and the subsequent cooperation partnership forum.
He said the leadership summit would address issues of concern to Africa, including regional wars and ethnic conflicts.
Taiwan also planned to express its own views on issues that are of concern to the international community, Huang said.
The minister added that the summit was not an attempt to draw attention away from the China-Africa cooperation summit. Taiwan had neither the ability nor the desire to compete with China, he said.
Sao Tome and Principe President Fradique de Menezes had broached the idea of holding such a summit two or three years ago, Huang said, adding that the president was keen for Taiwan to share its expertise in information technology, medicine and sustainable development.
The summit would not focus on the subject of aid, he said.
In the subsequent cooperation partnership forum, Taiwan planned to elicit opinions from leaders and non-governmental organizations on issues of peace, stability, sustainable development and digital opportunities in Africa, Huang said.
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:
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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