The replacement of a Republic of China (ROC) national flag with the Chinese Taipei Olympic flag in a display of 206 national flags in London has sparked heated discussions among netizens and a spate of uploaded photographs featuring the red, blue and white flag.
Initiating the display to celebrate the Olympics, the Regent Street Association, a private association of businesses in the area and is unaffiliated with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), made the replacement after three days, reportedly under pressure from the Chinese embassy in London conveyed via the UK Foreign Office and the IOC.
A number of neitzens have left messages on President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) Facebook page calling on him to step down because he “can’t even protect the flag.”
Photo: CNA
The incident took place on Tuesday, but Ma has yet to make a comment on the matter. Nor for that matter has his administration, with the exception of a letter from Representative to the UK Shen Lyu-shun (沈呂巡) to the organizer to express “strong concern.”
Ma must be “dim” if he believed that China would make any exceptions to its agenda of stifling Taiwan internationally because of his “pro-China” policies, a netizen said.
Students studying in the UK have uploaded various photographs of Taiwanese waving a ROC national flag in Piccadilly Circus, the venue of the display, with a message reading: “We put our national flag back in our own way.”
Photo: CNA
A student named Melissa Alexander invited netizens to “like” her Facebook post that reads: “This injustice has been going on for too long yet the world has never paid enough attention on this issue.”
“It is understandable that there is an agreement between the Taiwanese government and the Olympic association, that the Taiwanese national flag will not be on display in the Olympic stadium, nor along the Olympic route, to prevent an aggressive reaction from China and to maintain peace on the international stage. However, London’s Regent Street is not along the Olympic route. Hence there is absolutely no reason that the Taiwanese national flag cannot be shown in the skies of London,” the message read.
Former Democratic Progressive Party chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said in a Facebook message that she believed that many Taiwanese people felt “uncomfortable” because of the incident.
“Especially for many young netizens, they felt that they were ‘humiliated,’” she wrote.
Tsai urged the Ma administration to be “more proactive” in its handling of the matter. China should also learn to show “mutual respect” for Taiwanese, as opposed to provoking the feeling that China has been unfriendly to and has humiliated Taiwan, Tsai said.
Taipei on Thursday held urban resilience air raid drills, with residents in one of the exercises’ three “key verification zones” reporting little to no difference compared with previous years, despite government pledges of stricter enforcement. Formerly known as the Wanan exercise, the air raid drills, which concluded yesterday, are now part of the “Urban Resilience Exercise,” which also incorporates the Minan disaster prevention and rescue exercise. In Taipei, the designated key verification zones — where the government said more stringent measures would be enforced — were Songshan (松山), Zhongshan (中山) and Zhongzheng (中正) districts. Air raid sirens sounded at 1:30pm, signaling the
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
The number of people who reported a same-sex spouse on their income tax increased 1.5-fold from 2020 to 2023, while the overall proportion of taxpayers reporting a spouse decreased by 4.4 percent from 2014 to 2023, Ministry of Finance data showed yesterday. The number of people reporting a spouse on their income tax trended upward from 2014 to 2019, the Department of Statistics said. However, the number decreased in 2020 and 2021, likely due to a drop in marriages during the COVID-19 pandemic and the income of some households falling below the taxable threshold, it said. The number of spousal tax filings rebounded
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
RSS