President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday presided over a banquet attended by about 350 members of overseas Taiwanese and Chinese communities at the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (CCBA) in San Francisco, where media were denied access and later evicted.
Ma hosted the banquet during his transit through San Francisco, en route back to Taiwan after visiting Panama and El Salvador.
Despite having removed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national flag from its office in May, the CCBA staff hoisted the flag to welcome Ma.
However, the reporters following Ma’s motorcade were denied entry to the venue by the association and were later evicted by its staff.
Waiting by the side door of the venue, reporters were again interrupted by the venue’s staffers when they tried to interview the guests.
Staff threatened to call the police if the reporters attempted to cover the event.
The treatment of the media reversed the association’s attitude when it organized to a similar banquet that Ma hosted in January at the CCBA’s Los Angeles branch after visiting Taiwan’s allies in Africa and Central America, when reporters were allowed to cover the entire event uninterrupted.
According to Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) member Chung Wei-chun (鍾維君), who attended the banquet, Ma said at the banquet that relations between Taiwan and the US have “never been better,” given bilateral trade amounting to US$57.7 billion and the visa-free program benefiting travelers from both sides.
That remark was echoed by American Institute in Taiwan Chairman Raymond Burghardt (薄瑞光), who said at the event that Taiwan is an important trade partner of the US.
Commenting on the removal of the ROC flag from its San Francisco-based headquarters, president of the CCBA Hop Wo branch Damon Yee (余習文), said that many overseas Chinese and Taiwanese communities still root for the ROC regardless of the decision by the CCBA in San Francisco.
Among the seven CCBA branches, only Hop Wo and Su Hing still favor Taiwan by displaying the ROC flag.
The CCBA approved a motion last May, by a margin of one vote, to remove the ROC flag that it had flown for decades and hang the state flag of California instead.
The move prompted the Overseas Community Affairs Council to file a charge against the association. The verdict is slated to be announced in November.
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