Expounding his “flexible diplomacy” to the nation’s diplomats yesterday, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said such an approach has ensured Taiwan’s place on the side of “righteousness” in foreign affairs and that its “dignity” was not made possible with consent from China.
“I have never discussed a diplomatic truce or flexible diplomacy with the mainland as of yet, but the trend has been heading in that direction. It’s because it is good for everyone,” Ma said as he addressed a meeting in Taipei that gathered 81 heads of the nation’s overseas diplomatic missions and representative offices.
Ma said the implementation of “flexible diplomacy” in the past three years has born fruit in terms of “more consolidated relationships” with the nation’s diplomatic allies and “restoration of mutual trust” between Taiwan and non-allied countries of importance.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Ma said the Latin phrase modus vivendi came to mind when he was trying to find a lasting solution to break through the difficulties the country faces internationally since Taipei’s exit from the UN, as well as to shed the practice of “checkbook diplomacy.”
Under the principle of “flexible diplomacy,” the rules of the competition between Taiwan and China in the international community is not about competing for recognition from diplomatic allies of the other side, but about promoting universal values, Ma said.
Instead of staying stuck in a diplomatic tussle with China, the country would like to compete with China in being a peacemaker, a humanitarian aid provider, a promoter of Taiwanese culture with Chinese characteristics, a creator of new technologies and business opportunities and a standard-bearer of Chinese culture, he said.
The three-day diplomats’ meeting, organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was the first of its kind since 1996 when Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) became the country’s first democratically elected president amid Chinese military exercises against Taiwan.
Dismissing the allegation that the meeting was held to boost Ma’s re-election bid, the ministry said the event was scheduled to celebrate the Republic of China’s centenary.
Following Ma’s 40-minute speech, Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), Ma’s running mate in January’s presidential election, also addressed the diplomats for another 40 minutes, touting achievements made by Ma in the past three years.
Wu said Ma has advocated peaceful development in cross-strait relations, established a clean and efficient government, brought the economy back to a steady recovery, created justice and harmony in society and built a sustainable environment in the country.
Meanwhile, at the request of Ma, the ministry has scheduled a trip on Friday for the diplomats to visit areas undergoing reconstruction in southern Taiwan that were hit by Typhoon Morakot two years ago.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Timothy Yang (楊進添) said the reconstruction of the typhoon-hit areas could lead to a paradigm shift in that the country could provide humanitarian aid should disasters occur in other countries.
“President [Ma] instructed us to bring cameras and Premier [Wu] said we should also bring video cameras. [I] hope everyone gets those ready then,” Yang said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater