Taiwan’s top foreign affairs official in Berlin was said to have snubbed Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) during a visit there as part of her Europe trip.
A member of her delegation said Taiwan’s representative to Germany Wei Wu-lien (魏武煉) failed to meet Tsai at the airport or even give her a telephone call, actions normally considered customary for a high-profile trip by the head of the opposition party.
“I have never met this kind of overseas representative,” said Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴), the head of the DPP international affairs department that traveled with Tsai. “During this trip, the German representative was completely -indifferent to [Tsai] from start to finish.”
Despite sending an official request for assistance, including help setting up a meeting with several German politicians, the letters were largely ignored, DPP spokesperson Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said. Instead, the DPP was forced to rely on assistance from overseas Taiwanese groups and German politicians friendly to Taiwan, he added.
Back in Taipei, the allegations of a diplomatic lapse raised concerns among DPP politicians, but Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers said that any courtesy extended to Tsai could be misconstrued as a violation of administrative neutrality.
Foreign affairs officials in Taipei were quick to point out that Wei had a prior commitment to -accompany first lady Chow Mei--ching (周美青) to a Cloud Gate Dance Theatre performance. And on the date of Tsai’s departure, Wei had a meeting with German officials.
Prior to the trip, Wei had invited Tsai to a meal, but received no response, according to officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs.
“[Wei] did not purposely avoid Tsai,” Director-General of European Affairs James Lee (李光章) said.
On the request for assistance, Lee said the German politicians listed by the DPP had timing conflicts and requests for follow-up information from the party were also ignored.
KMT caucus whip Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) suggested that Tsai did not need to be afforded such high-profile treatment by the -representative office as she was not yet officially listed with the Central Election Commission as a presidential candidate despite being nominated by the DPP.
KMT Legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) added that using administrative resources to help the DPP would have been a “violation of administrative neutrality.”
Tsai, running for the nation’s top post, should have been clear on this, he said.
However, DPP officials said that former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) administration had extended a similar courtesy to Lien Chan (連戰), the KMT’s honorary chairperson at the time. In 2005, Lien was personally greeted by then-Taiwan’s representative to Germany, Shieh Jhy-wey (謝志偉), Chen said.
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