Taiwan’s representative to this year’s Miss Earth contest yesterday expressed gratitude to her fans after she was ejected from the pageant for refusing to wear a sash that read “Chinese Taipei” and instead wearing one marked “Taiwan ROC.”
“I feel very appreciative to all the people who have encouraged me. Now that I have been suspended from the contest and have returned to my hotel, I have had more time to think it over,” the 22-year-old Ting Wen-yin (丁文茵) said on Facebook.
“Despite all these difficulties, I still feel grateful that this contest made me more mature and gave me a broader view of the world,” she wrote.
Photo: Screenshot from Facebook
Ting, who was representing Taiwan at the Miss Earth pageant in Vienna, two days earlier revealed that she originally wore a sash given to her by the organizers upon her arrival in Vienna that read “Taiwan ROC” — referring to Taiwan’s formal name, the Republic of China.
However, the organizers later asked Ting to replace her sash with another that read “Chinese Taipei” — the name used in most international events because of pressure from China — claiming that the original sash was misprinted by the event staff, Ting said.
Insisting that she was born in Taiwan and was representing Taiwan, Ting refused to change her sash and was banned from attending the pageant on Monday, while photographers were told not to take her picture, she added.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Eleanor Wang (王珮玲) said that Ting was forced to replace her sash due to pressure from China.
Wang said that Taiwan’s Chinese International Beauty Pageants Association (中華國際選美發展交流協會), which sent Ting to Vienna, told the ministry that Ting would continue to compete in the pageant using the name “Chinese Taipei.”
Founded in 2001, the Miss Earth pageant is held to promote environmental awareness, empower women worldwide and support international environmental organizations.
This year’s competition, which had 87 contestants, runs from Wednesday last week to Dec. 5, according to the event’s Web site.
The winner of the pageant is to serve as an ambassador in environmental protection campaigns worldwide.
MEDIGEN: The vaccine must also be reviewed by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices before it is added to the national vaccination program An emergency use authorization (EUA) for Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp’s (高端疫苗) COVID-19 vaccine — MVC-COV1901 — for people aged 20 and older was issued by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) yesterday. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said a specialists’ meeting was held at the FDA on Sunday to review Medigen’s application to manufacture and distribute its COVID-19 vaccine, and the panel approved it. FDA Director Wu Hsiu-mei (吳秀梅) said the meeting consisted of 21 specialists from the fields of chemistry, manufacturing and controls, pharmacy, toxicology, clinical medicine, public health, law and medical ethics. There were no major concerns over
LAND ALERT UNCERTAIN: The CWB was waiting to observe how In-Fa shifts as it moves north to determine when to issue a land alert, a forecaster at the bureau said Residents of northern Taiwan should brace for heavy rain today and tomorrow as Typhoon In-Fa approaches the northeast, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said yesterday. A land alert for the typhoon would be issued depending on the angle at which it moves north today, the bureau said. The bureau on Wednesday issued a sea alert for the typhoon, which applies to ships operating off the nation’s northern, northeastern and southeastern coasts. As of 8:30pm yesterday, In-Fa’s center was 470km southeast of Taipei, moving northwest at 6kph. It was carrying maximum sustained winds of 180kph, and had a radius of 200km. The typhoon was moving
‘BREAKTHROUGH’: All countries should be free to pursue closer ties with Taiwan, a leading democracy, a major economy, and a force for good in the world, the AIT said Taiwan is to establish a “Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania,” the first office in Europe to be called Taiwanese, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced yesterday. “It is an important diplomatic breakthrough,” President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) wrote on Facebook, thanking diplomatic personnel for the significant achievement. To expand the nation’s relations with central and eastern Europe, especially with Baltic nations, the government decided to establish the office in Vilnius, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) told an online news conference. The plan signals progress in Taiwan-Europe relations, as it has been 18 years since the nation last opened an office on the
TARGET RAISED: The CECC said vaccination coverage has reached 24.35%, while Premier Su Tseng-chang said the government hopes for 30% by the end of July The government has signed a contract to buy an additional 36 million doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, 1 million of which are to be delivered in the fourth quarter, the Executive Yuan announced yesterday, as it updated its vaccination target to 30 percent coverage by the end of the month. The two-year deal with the US company covers “prime series” vaccines and future booster shots to protect against SARS-CoV-2 variants, Executive Yuan spokesman Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) quoted Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) as saying during an Executive Yuan meeting in Taipei. In the two weeks since vaccine registration opened, more than 9.8
RSS