President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday turned down the idea of Taiwan and China jointly commemorating the centenary of the 1911 revolution that led to the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty.
Ma said Taiwan would celebrate the occasion separately because the incident also made possible the establishment of the Republic of China (ROC).
“It has been 100 years since our country was founded, which is what matters most to us,” Ma said, addressing the preparatory committee for the ROC centennial celebrations next year.
The ROC government relocated to Taiwan in 1949 following a civil war that led to the establishment of the People’s Republic of China.
With relations between the two sides warming since Ma’s inauguration, there have been proposals for Taiwan and China to jointly commemorate the event.
Ma said Taiwan would not take part in the exhibitions organized by China.
He said that in the past 60 years, the ROC in Taiwan has witnessed developments unprecedented in ethnic Chinese communities worldwide, including the establishment of a full-fledged democracy and a pluralistic and open society.
He said the ROC centennial celebrations should be turned into a one-year “Taiwan expo” with direct relevance to people’s lives.
“We must do our utmost to achieve perfection and display the significance, value and spirit of the centennial, as well as elaborate a vision for the future,” Ma said.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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