The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday condemned Chinese efforts to suppress Taiwan’s international space, after a report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists detailed pressure from the Chinese embassy in Belgium to remove the Taiwanese flag flying in front of the nation’s representative office in 2022.
The flag was removed in January 2023 and the intent to have Taiwan as the guest of honor at last year’s Brussels International Book Fair was also canceled out of concern about China’s reaction, according to a report in Belgium’s French-language newspaper Le Soir.
The report was part of the “China Targets” series by the consortium, which investigates how Beijing “abuses international institutions to terrorize its critics and extend its repressive tactics worldwide.”
Photo: CNA
Brussels International Book Fair director Tanguy Roosen told the newspaper that the fair had wanted to focus on Asian nations last year, but the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned against the idea.
It is evident that the Belgian government is cautious when it comes to dealing with China, he said.
The Central News Agency (CNA) said that its reporters had witnessed the flag being taken down, but decided not to report on the incident to prevent affecting Taiwan-Belgium relations.
China’s attempts to define the Taiwan issue as one of “domestic politics” seek to isolate Taiwan from international support, MOFA said in a statement.
“We call on the international community to take tangible action against China’s attempts to disrupt the status quo,” it said.
The international community must clearly state that it stands against Beijing’s use of legal, psychological and media warfare against Taiwan to jointly uphold stability and prosperity in the Taiwan Strait and the Indo-Pacific region, it added.
Representative to Belgium Roy Lee (李淳) told CNA that China’s oppression of Taiwan has been pervasive and relentless, and Taiwan’s diplomatic corps would continue to advocate for the nation’s rights to be recognized and heard by the international community.
Sara van Hoeymissen, a world politics lecturer at the Royal Military Academy of Belgium, said that the representative office is walking a tightrope in terms of what can or cannot be done diplomatically.
The Chinese embassy is constantly contacting the Belgian government regarding the formal appellation used for Taiwan on official documents and demands that any form of address given to Taiwan should refrain from being associated with independence, Van Hoeymissen said.
If the Chinese embassy chooses to, it can devote a great deal of resources to inundating the Taiwan representative office with letters and complaints, she said.
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
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ECONOMIC COERCION: Such actions are often inconsistently applied, sometimes resumed, and sometimes just halted, the Presidential Office spokeswoman said The government backs healthy and orderly cross-strait exchanges, but such arrangements should not be made with political conditions attached and never be used as leverage for political maneuvering or partisan agendas, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks after China earlier in the day announced 10 new “incentive measures” for Taiwan, following a landmark meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) in Beijing on Friday. The measures, unveiled by China’s Xinhua news agency, include plans to resume individual travel by residents of Shanghai and China’s Fujian
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