Despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) recent campaign promoting the Republic of China (ROC) national flag, it was nowhere to be seen yesterday at the Grand Hotel, where high-level cross-strait talks are being held.
Explaining the lack of a flag, Grand Hotel’s public relations office manager Yu Li-ying (俞利英) said yesterday that the hotel flies the national flag on only two occasions.
One is on Oct. 10, when the nation celebrates National Day, the other is the New Year on Jan. 1, she said.
In accordance with international protocol, they would also fly the national flag along with that of the visiting country if the national leader of that country stays at the hotel, she said.
The MAC has been running newspaper advertisements and TV spots in the run-up to the meeting between Straits Exchange Foundation Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) and his Chinese counterpart, Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林), which began in Taipei yesterday.
The MAC campaign used the tag line: “Wherever the national flag is customarily located, [it should] remain there.”
In a bid to ensure that Chen understands the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government will not change its position on the national flag to accommodate his visit, MAC officials said television commercials and newspaper advertisements will run through Friday, two days after Chen leaves.
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