The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said that comments by French luxury goods brand Christian Dior about the nation’s sovereignty were regrettable and untrue, while condemning Beijing for interfering in the management of international companies.
Dior early yesterday morning issued a statement on its Chinese Web site that it “always respects and upholds the one China principle, strictly safeguards China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and treasures the feelings of the Chinese people,” after it used a map of China that excluded Taiwan during a presentation at Gongshang University in Zhejiang Province.
Ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said that it was regrettable to see Dior make a statement that was factually incorrect.
“Taiwan is not part of China, nor is it a part of any province of the People’s Republic of China and it has never been governed, even for a day, by the People’s Republic of China,” Ou said.
International companies should refrain from making politicized statements or taking sides, nor should they be pressured to make factually incorrect statements, she said.
Ou criticized Beijing for interfering in the management of international companies, adding that its actions are “barbaric and contravene the spirit of international commercial independence.”
She called on Beijing to stop digging itself into a deeper quagmire.
The international community should not stand silent and should call out Beijing for bullying other nations, she said, adding that the international community must take action to uphold the dignity and autonomy of corporations.
Beijing’s intimidation of Dior today could lead to Beijing pressuring, or invading, nations in the future, the ministry said.
This is an act that disrupts the cross-strait “status quo,” the ministry said, calling on like-minded nations to help resist oppression.
The ministry has contacted Dior to convey Taiwan’s position and to urge the company to be strong and not bow to Chinese pressure.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching