Representative to Germany Shieh Jhy-wey (謝志偉) on Wednesday said he has written to several major German companies demanding that they stop listing Taiwan as part of China on their Web sites.
Shieh was referring in particular to Lufthansa and Mercedes-Benz, which have listed Taiwan on their English-language Web sites as “Taiwan, China,” as well as Bosch, which uses “Taiwan (China)” on its Web site.
“These companies have apparently come under heavy pressure from Beijing, as China has been flexing its muscle toward Taiwan around the globe,” he said. “However, this is something that we cannot accept and we have demanded a correction from these companies.”
The issue came on the heels of Marriott International’s apology to Beijing in January for naming Taiwan as a stand-alone country on an e-mail questionnaire it sent to members of its reward program.
China has been stepping up its offensive against Taiwan by adopting a two-pronged strategy.
While it is seeking to block the nation’s presence in the international community, Beijing is offering incentives to Taiwanese citizens in hopes of enticing more Taiwanese to engage with China.
Late last month, Beijing announced 31 measures that would allow Taiwanese to compete on an equal footing with Chinese in China, covering an “unprecedented” number of actors, from students to the film industry.
Academics have expressed concern that this would accelerate an exodus of talent from Taiwan, placing the nation at a disadvantage in the global competition for highly educated workers.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
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