Sun, Oct 01, 2017 page3

• ‘Nation’ missing on National Day invites: official

  TOASTING WHAT? Those invited to Oct. 10 festivities would be stunned, as they celebrate the nation’s birth, but the cause for celebration is missing, a KMT official said

  • By Sean Lin / Staff reporter
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  Unlike in the past, invitations for next week’s Double Ten National Day celebrations sent by President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration do not include the nation’s flag and name, and are aimed at discrediting the Republic of China (ROC), Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Culture and Communications Committee deputy director-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said yesterday.

  The national title and flag were missing on invitations for the celebrations in front of the Presidential Office Building in Taipei, as well as for an evening party at the athetics field of the National Taiwan University of Sport in Taichung.

  Both events are themed “Better Taiwan” in English and “Let us become better in 2017” in Chinese.

  

  Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Culture and Communications Committee deputy director Hung Meng-kai holds up invitations to the national day celebrations at a news conference in Taipei yesterday.

  Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times

  The designs marked a contrast with invitations distributed when the KMT was the ruling party, which included both the title and flag, Hung told a news conference in Taipei.

  “I bet the recipients are going to be floored, as the events are supposed to celebrate the nation’s birthday, but the cause for celebration is missing,” he said.

  The Tsai administration has repeatedly said that the ROC is a sovereign nation and called on the international community to acknowledge it, but it is really using the title as a pretext for furthering its “ill-boding” cause of Taiwanese independence, he said.

  “That the Tsai administration has resorted to these kinds of ‘little tricks’ to degrade the nation’s sovereignty shows that it is no longer fit to rule,” he said.

  Even designs for invitations by the nation’s representative offices abroad were inconsistent, he said.

  For instance, the representatives in Chicago and Boston included the title and flag on invitations that they sent out to overseas Taiwanese and officials for the events, but they were absent from invitations sent by the Taipei Representative Office in Germany, Hung said.

  Hung asked whether Representative to Germany Shieh Jhy-wey (謝志偉), who he said had apparently adopted a “pro-Taiwanese independence” stance, had deliberately done away with the nation’s title and flag.

  Given the nation’s diplomatic plight, it is absurd that even a diplomat was attempting to discredit the ROC, Hung said.

  The Tsai administration should not use the two events — which cost NT$146 million (US$4.82 million) to organize — or proposed constitutional reforms to further its cause of Taiwanese independence, which would put public safety at risk, he said.

  The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it granted representative offices the authority to design their own invitations, adding that despite being different, all of their designs followed three principles: they are becoming, representative of the nation and reflect the social atmosphere overseas.
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