Minister of Foreign Affairs James Huang (
"Beijing will never give up its efforts to crush Taiwan at any cost," said Huang, responding to speculation that Beijing could ease its rhetoric against Taiwan ahead of elections to avoid drumming up sympathy for the Democratic Progressive Party.
Huang said Beijing would most likely step up its efforts to oppress Taiwan over the next few months and urged all ministry staffers to watch for Beijing's tricks.
Huang reiterated that the nation would not compete with China in a "dollar diplomacy" race to buy allies because it had no reason to engage in an impossible battle.
"There have been rumors that China has offered a US$6 billion financial package in exchange for Malawi's recognition. We could never afford to compete with such an amount. What we offer, however, is trust, dependability and unwavering friendship," he said, adding that the ministry was closely monitoring the situation in the African country.
Huang said that Taiwan-US ties remain "solid, stable, close and friendly," in spite of Washington's vocal opposition to Taiwan's planned referendum on joining the UN under the name "Taiwan."
"In the past seven and half years, the Taiwan-US relationship has been a roller coaster," he admitted, but stressed Taiwan had not made any "provocative" moves to unilaterally change the "status quo" as it is understood by Washington.
Anything Taiwan does to push along its democratic development will be labeled by its "foe" China as a "provocative maneuver towards de jure independence," Huang said.
Huang said that, in the past few years, the nation had amply demonstrated its wisdom and strength in making progress at home without shedding a drop of blood.
The US and other international players should have confidence in the nation's ability to do its bit to maintain cross-strait peace, he said.
Huang said that although this year had been a "worrisome and difficult" year for the ministry -- marred by Costa Rica's sudden switch of allegiance to China in June -- it was also a year for the ministry to explore new ways of engaging in diplomacy.
Under the leadership of President Chen Shui-bian (
Although both bids were rejected, they were nevertheless milestones in Taiwanese history, he said.
Another ministry accomplishment this year, Huang said, was the restoration of ties with St Lucia in April.
In the future, Taiwan will strive to contribute more to fighting global warming by helping its allies to develop alternative energy and solar power technology, he 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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