Taiwan yesterday said its relationship with the Vatican is stable, although it would closely watch what it described as “suppression” by China following a landmark deal between Beijing and the Vatican on the appointment of bishops on China.
The Vatican has signed an agreement giving it a long-desired say in the appointment of bishops in China, triggering worries among some officials in Taiwan that the Vatican could switch diplomatic recognition to Beijing.
The Holy See is the nation’s last remaining diplomatic ally in Europe.
“We will closely watch the suppression and calculations from China,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Andrew Lee (李憲章) told reporters in response to comments from Beijing that it wanted to deepen ties with the Vatican.
“The Taiwan-Vatican relations are stable,” he said, adding that Taiwan has been assisting the Vatican in renovating its embassy in Taipei, the Apostolic Nunciature on Aiguo E Road, using that as an example of the stable ties.
Critics have labeled the Vatican accord with China as a sellout to the Communist government, with Cardinal Jospeh Zen (陳日君), the former archbishop of Hong Kong, describing it as “an incredible betrayal.”
Since the deal was signed on Saturday last week, the Vatican has not mentioned Taiwan.
On Wednesday, Pope Francis urged China’s leaders to move ahead with “trust, courage and farsightedness” and called on Chinese Catholics to not shrink from offering “a word of criticism” when necessary to defend human dignity.
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
CPBL players, cheerleaders and officials pose at a news conference in Taipei yesterday announcing the upcoming All-Star Game. This year’s CPBL All-Star Weekend is to be held at the Taipei Dome on July 19 and 20.
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a
RSS