More than 300 guests raised their champagne glasses to wish Queen Elizabeth II a happy 86th birthday during a reception held by the British Trade and Cultural Office (BTCO) in Taipei on June 9.
Office Director David Campbell said the queen’s actual birthday is on April 21, but the monarch’s official birthday, which is a public holiday in the UK as well as many commonwealth countries, is usually celebrated in June.
Last year had been a “very positive year” for bilateral relations between Taiwan and the UK, Campbell said, and the friendship was strengthened when both countries agreed to grant six-month visa-waiver privileges to each other’s citizens.
The visa-waiver program began in March.
VISITORS
Touting the trade and cultural relations between the two sides, Campbell said a large contingent of British athletes will participate in the World Games in Kaohsiung next month and the Deaflympics in Taipei in September.
BTCO said approximately 3,000 British nationals are living in Taiwan. The number is expected to increase due to the visa-waiver program, the office said.
At the center of the birthday reception last week was an ice sculpture of Big Ben to mark the 150th anniversary of the British landmark.
BRITISH FARE
Guests at the queen’s birthday reception, including senior officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the heads of embassies and representative offices, and representatives from the business and academic sectors, partook of typical British fare such as roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, sausage rolls, minced meat pies and English trifle.
Taiwan would benefit from more integrated military strategies and deployments if the US and its allies treat the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea as a “single theater of operations,” a Taiwanese military expert said yesterday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said he made the assessment after two Japanese military experts warned of emerging threats from China based on a drill conducted this month by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theater Command. Japan Institute for National Fundamentals researcher Maki Nakagawa said the drill differed from the
‘WORSE THAN COMMUNISTS’: President William Lai has cracked down on his political enemies and has attempted to exterminate all opposition forces, the chairman said The legislature would motion for a presidential recall after May 20, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday at a protest themed “against green communists and dictatorship” in Taipei. Taiwan is supposed to be a peaceful homeland where people are united, but President William Lai (賴清德) has been polarizing and tearing apart society since his inauguration, Chu said. Lai must show his commitment to his job, otherwise a referendum could be initiated to recall him, he said. Democracy means the rule of the people, not the rule of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), but Lai has failed to fulfill his
A rally held by opposition parties yesterday demonstrates that Taiwan is a democratic country, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that if opposition parties really want to fight dictatorship, they should fight it on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) held a protest with the theme “against green communists and dictatorship,” and was joined by the Taiwan People’s Party. Lai said the opposition parties are against what they called the “green communists,” but do not fight against the “Chinese communists,” adding that if they really want to fight dictatorship, they should go to the right place and face
A 79-year-old woman died today after being struck by a train at a level crossing in Taoyuan, police said. The woman, identified by her surname Wang (王), crossed the tracks even though the barriers were down in Jhongli District’s (中壢) Neili (內壢) area, the Taoyuan Branch of the Railway Police Bureau said. Surveillance footage showed that the railway barriers were lowered when Wang entered the crossing, but why she ventured onto the track remains under investigation, the police said. Police said they received a report of an incident at 6:41am involving local train No. 2133 that was heading from Keelung to Chiayi City. Investigators
RSS