The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said that it “cannot accept” the lack of a Republic of China flag on the Web site of the German Federal Foreign Office after a German reporter noticed that the flag was missing and brought it up at a news conference at the office in Berlin on Friday.
The ministry said that it has asked the office to explain the absence of the nation’s flag from the page on the Web site listing the nations with which Germany has bilateral relations.
The Web site showed a white box above the entry for Taiwan, in place of a flag.
Photo: Screen grab from the Web site of German Federal Foreign Office
Taiwan is the only nation on the Web site not to have its national flag displayed.
The office representing Taiwan in a different manner from how it represents other nations would cause prejudice and misunderstanding among people around the world, ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said in Taipei.
Office deputy spokesman Rainer Breul on Friday told the reporter that the lack of the flag did not represent a policy change in Germany, which follows the “one China” principle.
The site displayed a white box to differentiate Taiwan from nations with which Germany has formal diplomatic relations, Bruel said.
The German Institute Taipei said that the office’s Web site has never displayed the flag and the suggestion that the flag was removed under pressure from China was inaccurate.
The institute said that it hoped that the office could use an image symbolic of Taiwan, rather than simply leaving the space blank, but that officials who maintain the Web site can be slow in making changes.
The Taipei Representative Office in the Federal Republic of Germany confirmed that the German Federal Foreign Office had never displayed the national flag on its Web site, adding that in the past the site had not even listed Taiwan among bilateral nations and instead had placed it in a separate section on its own.
The site now properly lists Taiwan, its president, its premier and ministry officials, the representative office said, adding that it would continue to press for improved recognition of Taiwan within the German government.
SILENCING CRITICS: In addition to blocking Taiwan, China aimed to prevent rights activists from speaking out against authoritarian states, a Cabinet department said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday condemned transnational repression by Beijing after RightsCon, a major digital human rights conference scheduled to be held in Zambia this week, was abruptly canceled due to Chinese pressure over Taiwanese participation. This year’s RightsCon, the world’s largest conference discussing issues “at the intersection of human rights and technology,” was scheduled to take place from tomorrow to Friday in Lusaka, and expected to draw 2,600 in-person attendees from 150 countries, along with 1,100 online participants. However, organizers were forced to cancel the event due to behind-the-scenes pressure from China, the ministry said, expressing its “strongest condemnation”
Taiwan’s economy grew far faster than expected in the first quarter, as booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications drove a surge in exports, spilling over into investment and consumption, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. GDP growth was 13.69 percent year-on-year during the January-to-March period, beating the DGBAS’ February forecast by 2.23 percentage points and marking the most robust growth in nearly four decades, DGBAS senior official Chiang Hsin-yi (江心怡) told a news conference in Taipei. The result was powered by exports, which remain the backbone of Taiwan’s economy, Chiang said. Outbound shipments jumped 51.12 percent year-on-year to
DELAYED BUT DETERMINED: The president’s visit highlights Taiwan’s right to international engagement amid regional pressure from China President Willaim Lai (賴清德) yesterday arrived in Eswatini, more than a week after his planned visit to Taiwan’s sole African ally was suspended because of revoked overflight permits. “The visit, originally scheduled for April 22, was postponed due to unforeseen external factors,” Lai wrote on social media. “After several days of careful arrangements by our diplomatic and national security teams, we successfully arrived today.” Lai said he looked forward to further deepening Taiwan-Eswatini relations through closer cooperation in the economy, agriculture, culture and education, as well as advancing the nation’s international partnerships. The president was initially scheduled to arrive in time to celebrate
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) yesterday said the US faced a choice between an “impossible” military operation or a “bad deal” with Tehran, after US President Donald Trump disparaged Iran’s latest peace proposal. Negotiations between the two countries have been deadlocked since a ceasefire came into effect on April 8, with only one round of direct peace talks held so far. Iran’s Tasnim and Fars news agencies reported that Tehran had submitted a 14-point proposal to mediator Pakistan, but Trump was quick to cast doubt on it. “I will soon be reviewing the plan that Iran has just sent to us, but
RSS