A quasi-official organization founded last year to promote economic and cultural exchanges with Hong Kong is scheduled to hold its second joint meeting with its Hong Kong counterpart tomorrow, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday.
Representatives of the -Taiwan-Hong Kong Economic and Cultural Co-operation Council (ECCC) will meet in Hong Kong with the Hong Kong--Taiwan Economic and Cultural Co--operation and Promotion Council (ECCPC), said the MAC, which oversees the ECCC.
REVIEW
During the one-day meeting, delegates are expected to review progress in economic and cultural cooperation over the past year and discuss cooperation in new areas for the coming year, the MAC said.
ECCC chairman Lin Chen-kuo (林振國) will lead the 20-member delegation, which will also include some of its advisers such as Sun Chen (孫震), an academic, and former vice chairwoman of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Lin Cheng-chih (林澄枝).
Also that day, the ECCC Economic Cooperation Committee will hold a Taiwan-Hong Kong economic and trade forum in Hong Kong, the MAC said.
The ECCC was established in May last year following Hong Kong’s establishment of the ECCPC two months earlier. Lee Yeh-kwong (李業廣) has since served as ECCPC chairman.
FIRST MEETING
The two intermediary bodies held their first joint meeting in Taipei on Aug. 30 last year.
During that meeting, the two sides decided to take turns hosting joint meetings at least once a year and convening additional gatherings whenever needed.
They established principles for communication and interaction between the two sides.
Mainland Affairs Council Minister Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) and Hong Kong Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Stephen Lam (林瑞麟) attended the first ECCC-ECCPC meeting in Taipei.
Hong Kong’s role as a transit hub for people and goods between Taiwan and China has been reduced as a result of warmer cross-strait ties since President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took office in 2008.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by