The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday condemned the Chinese embassy in Fiji over a fracas at its Double Ten National Day event at a Suva hotel, while a lawmaker demanded that the ministry file a lawsuit against Chinese embassy personnel for injuring a Taiwanese diplomat at the event.
The Grubsheet news blog on Sunday and New Zealand-based Asia-Pacific Report Web site yesterday reported that two members of the Chinese embassy in Suva tried to force their way into a celebration held by the Taipei Trade Office in Fiji at the Grand Pacific Hotel on Oct. 8 to take photographs of the 100 people attending the party.
The Chinese assaulted an office staffer who asked them to leave, leaving him needing hospital treatment for a head injury, the reports said.
Photo: Lu Yi-hsuan, Taipei Times
The Chinese embassy denied the accusations and said that one of its staffers was injured.
“On that very evening, the staff of the Taipei Trade Office in Fiji acted provocatively against the Chinese embassy staff, who were carrying out their official duties in the public area outside the function venue, causing injuries and damage to one Chinese diplomat,” the embassy said, adding that it has asked Fijian police to investigate.
During a question-and-answer session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Mark Ho (何志偉) demanded that the ministry take legal action.
Details of the scuffle were reported locally only after foreign media reported the incident, as the ministry had been handling it in a low-key manner, but it is an “international incident of great severity,” Ho said.
The Chinese embassy should not be able to claim diplomatic immunity, as it only applies to civil cases, and the incident was a criminal case, the lawmaker added.
Department of East Asian and Pacific Affairs Director-General Larry Tseng (曾瑞利) told Ho that the ministry had filed a complaint with Fijian police, but more evaluations are needed before taking legal action, considering the “complexity and sensitivity” of the incident.
Ho reiterated his demand that the ministry file a lawsuit, adding that such violence should be condemned.
Ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said that the Chinese diplomats were forced to leave the reception venue by Fijian police following the confrontation, but they tried to muddy the waters by saying that they were attacked first.
MOFA has asked the Fijian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and police to collect evidence to clarify the facts, and also delivered a stern protest to the Fijian ministry against the Chinese embassy, Ou said in a statement.
In view of the increasing number of provocative actions by Chinese diplomats against Taiwan, MOFA has asked its office in Fiji to stay in close contact with local police as part of efforts to bolster security at other events, she added.
The DPP condemned the Chinese diplomats, with spokeswoman Hsieh Pei-fen (謝佩芬) calling their behavior “violent acts that are a serious breach of civility and the rule of law.”
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) also condemned the assault, demanding that Beijing publicly apologize to the injured Taiwanese diplomat and severely punish its diplomats, while calling on the government to lodge a protest against Beijing through the proper channels.
Meanwhile, in Beijing yesterday, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Zhao Lijian (趙立堅) said that Taiwan was playing the victim, as he criticized the flags and cake displayed at the event.
“A false national flag was openly displayed at the scene, the cake was also marked with a false national flag,” Zhao told reporters, adding that “any attempt to sow discord between China and Pacific Island countries using the Taiwan issue will not succeed.”
A Fijian police spokeswoman told Agency France-Presse that a probe was ongoing and officers were working with Fiji’s foreign ministry.
Additional reporting by agencies
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
The government is considering polices to increase rental subsidies for people living in social housing who get married and have children, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. During an interview with the Plain Law Movement (法律白話文) podcast, Cho said that housing prices cannot be brought down overnight without affecting banks and mortgages. Therefore, the government is focusing on providing more aid for young people by taking 3 to 5 percent of urban renewal projects and zone expropriations and using that land for social housing, he said. Single people living in social housing who get married and become parents could obtain 50 percent more
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
RSS