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.
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.
DIPLOMATIC MOVES: Beijing is reportedly pressing the state after reports of forming links with Taiwan, while the ministry is also planning to reopen its office in Guam soon A representative office is set to open in Somaliland at the end of this month, at the earliest, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday amid reports that Beijing is sending a diplomatic delegation to the east African country. The ministry on July 1 announced that Taiwan and Somaliland would establish representative offices, following a report by the Somaliland Chronicle Web site. It said at the time that the two nations did not plan to establish formal ties. Somaliland President Muse Bihi Abdi has instructed close confidants to explore the possibility of “mutual recognition between Taiwan and Somaliland,” the Somaliland Chronicle reported
‘IMMORAL, INSINCERE’: Huang Kun-huei said that Ma was ‘distorting history’ in claiming that Lee Teng-hui laid the foundation for the so-called ‘1992 consensus’ Former Presidential Office secretary-general Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) on Saturday rejected former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) claim that former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) had been a proponent of Beijing’s “one China” principle. Lee, who served as president from 1988 to 2000, died in Taipei on Thursday last week. After visiting the Taipei Guest House on Saturday to pay his respects to Lee, Ma posted on Facebook that “28 years ago on this day” Lee hosted a session of the now-defunct National Unification Council, during which he passed a resolution on the “one China” principle. That resolution became the basis of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s
NEW ERA: Taiwan, which has controlled its virus outbreak, now faces the challenge of safely resuming economic exchanges with other nations, Chang Shan-chwen said People should not focus entirely on having zero new confirmed COVID-19 cases in Taiwan, but neglect overall control over the disease situation, Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) specialist advisory panel convener Chang Shan-chwen (張上淳) said yesterday. Chang made the remark at a forum in Taipei discussing the steps Taiwan should take in the post-pandemic era, organized by the Chinese-language magazine Global Views Monthly. Chang, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Chou Jih-haw (周志浩), and Stanford University’s Center for Policy, Outcomes and Prevention director C. Jason Wang (王智弘) each made a presentation, followed by a panel discussion with Chang, Wang and Buddhist Tzu
A Belgian man who tested positive for COVID-19 in Taiwan last week is likely to have contracted the disease in Taipei in late June, National Taiwan University (NTU) College of Public Health vice dean Tony Chen (陳秀熙) said yesterday. The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Saturday reported that the man, who is in his 20s, came to Taiwan for work on May 3 and tested positive on Wednesday last week as he was about to depart. The man in March reported loss of taste and smell, the center said, adding that he worked in Changhua County, but visited Taipei several times,
RSS