A series of promotional activities to celebrate the Republic of China (ROC) centennial, including concerts, exhibitions, overseas LED advertisements and print advertisements, were showcased yesterday by the Council for Cultural Affairs (CCA).
For the last year, the council has organized hundreds of activities that have been held nationwide. With the approach of Double Ten National Day, the council launched another series of events, which will run until the end of the year.
Between Thursday and Monday, passers-by in New York’s Times Square will be able to see a 6 minute advertisement in six 1 minute segments showcasing Taiwan’s natural beauty, its achievements and its economic competitiveness, Council for Cultural Affairs Minister Emile Sheng (盛治仁) told a press conference in Taipei.
Photo: CNA
“The film shows the world Taiwan’s accomplishments over the past 100 years,” he said.
There will also be print advertisements in local and foreign newspapers starting from tomorrow, the day before National Day.
The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune will also run full-page advertisements on Monday to coincide with the celebrations, Sheng added.
He also promoted a rock--opera performance scheduled for Monday and Tuesday evening in Greater Taichung.
Through the combination of music and drama, he said the show would portray Taiwan’s history and cultural heritage.
The celebrations are to continue after Double Ten Day, the council said, including an art installation featuring 100 expatriates who are influential in the nation and a nationwide cycling event on the last day of the year to bring the celebrations to a fitting climax.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement yesterday that former US secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld and his chief aide Keith Urbahn would fly to Taiwan tomorrow to attend ROC centennial celebrations on Double Ten Day.
The ministry touted Rumsfeld’s visit during the centennial celebrations as “profoundly significant.”
Rumsfeld made significant contributions to Taiwan-US military cooperation during his time as defense secretary under former US president George W. Bush.
“The current close military interactions between Taiwan and the United States is one of Rumsfeld’s legacies,” the ministry said.
During his stay, Rumsfeld will attend a luncheon hosted by the Taipei-based Prospect Foundation on Tuesday, at which he will deliver a speech titled “21st Century Challenges in the Pacific and Beyond.”
He will leave Taiwan later that same day, according to the ministry.
Among the other US dignitaries scheduled to attend the celebrations is Mary Eisenhower, granddaughter of former US president Dwight Eisenhower and president of People to People International, a non-profit organization that promotes citizen exchanges across borders.
Meanwhile, representatives from major political parties in Japan and the US are also scheduled to attend the ROC centennial celebrations on Double Ten National Day.
A total of 67 members of the Japanese Diet are scheduled to take part in the various celebratory events in Taiwan, the ministry said.
Takeo Hiranuma, chairman of the Japan-ROC Diet Members’ Consultative Council, will head a delegation to Taiwan from today through Monday, while former Japanese prime minister Taro Aso leads another delegation, comprising of 10 members of the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party.
Reince Priebus, chairman of the US Republican National Committee, will visit Taiwan from tomorrow through Saturday next week along with 12 other committee members, while Linda Chavez-Thompson, vice chairperson of the Democratic National Committee, and eight senior committee members will visit from today through Friday for the celebrations.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift