Taipei and the Chinese city of Xian launched a cooperative effort yesterday that will see a horticultural exposition held in Xian three days after the Taipei International Flora Expo concludes in April next year.
As a result of the joint effort and through exchanges between the two cities, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said he hoped environmental protection would take root and a win-win scenario would be created.
“To join heaven and man is an important concept of the thousands-year-old history of the Chinese nation,” Hau said. “To attach great importance to the environment is to realize such a concept.”
PHOTO:CNA
Xian Mayor Chen Baogen (陳寶根) said the joint effort bore significant meaning in the cooperation and exchange between “Shaanxi Province and Taiwan, and Xian and Taipei.”
Despite the warm words inside, the Chinese delegation were greeted by Falun Gong practitioners on their way out of the hotel where the announcement was made.
Calling Shaanxi Vice Governor and acting Governor Zhao Zhengyong (趙正永) the “scum of human rights,” the protesters said Zhao was not welcome in Taiwan because he had ordered the killing of many Falun Gong members.
Strangely enough, the protesters were not stopped by city personnel or the Chinese delegation, but rather by the bus driver transporting the Chinese delegation.
They engaged in physical clashes when the driver tried to stop the protesters from holding a banner that read “Persecution of Falun Gong, Zhao Zhengyong, you are charged with a criminal offense.”
On Monday, Falun Gong members filed a complaint at the Taiwan High Court Prosecutors' Office and they planned to sue Chinese Administration of Religious Affairs Director Wang Zuoan (王作安) today.
The 500-member delegation, led by Zhao, is the largest and highest-ranking delegation from the northwestern Chinese province to have visited Taiwan, and is scheduled to attend various events at this year's Taiwan-Shaanxi Week, held between yesterday and Sunday.
During a meeting with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Honorary Chairman Wu Po-hsiung (吳伯雄), Zhao said his delegation — the first Chinese group to visit Taiwan since the cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework agreement (ECFA) took effect on Sunday — will do its best to help implement the trade pact.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai