Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) on Wednesday night departed for the Czech Republic and several other countries in Europe, after making low-profile trips to Japan and the Philippines.
Lin made the Czech Republic his first stop in Europe as the two countries have developed close diplomatic and economic relations over the past few years, an exclusive report by the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) showed.
Lin and Minister of Culture Li Yuan (李遠) yesterday attended the opening ceremony of “One Hundred Selected Masterpieces of the National Palace Museum and Their Stories” at the National Museum in Prague.
Photo: Taipei Times
Deputy Legislative Speaker Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) also led a legislative delegation to the ceremony.
The exhibition is part of events under the “European Taiwan Cultural Year” that Lin and Li jointly promoted.
It is the first time that the National Palace Museum has exhibited its cultural artifacts — including the iconic Jadeite Cabbage With Insects (翠玉白菜) sculpture and Along the River During the Qingming Festival (清明上河圖), a handscroll painting — in the Czech Republic.
Photo courtesy of the National Palace Museum
The exhibition was made possible following amendments passed by Czech parliament.
Lin was reportedly scheduled to meet with Czech politicians, although the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was assessing whether details of the meetings would be made public.
Lin’s trip to Europe was described as an exchange between the two countries in the fields of economy, trade, technology and culture at higher government levels, a source familiar with the matter said.
Photo courtesy of the National Palace Museum
Similar to his visits to Japan and the Philippines over the past few months, Lin did not disclose the itinerary of the European trip in advance and accepted all the arrangements made with the countries he had planned to visit to avoid interference from Beijing.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office on Wednesday criticized the National Palace Museum’s exhibition in Prague, saying that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government is using it to advocate Taiwanese independence and remove Chinese influence from Taiwan.
“Desinicization is never a problem in Taiwan, whether the country is governed by the DPP or the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT),” Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) told a news conference in Taipei. “China launched the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s that was aimed at destroying Chinese culture, while Taiwan helped preserve the essential content of Chinese culture and customs.”
Photo courtesy of National Palace Museum
The Mazu Grand Ancestral Temple on Meizhou Island in China’s Fujian Province is a major pilgrimage site for devotees from across China, Taiwan and Southeast Asia, he said.
The temple was nearly destroyed during the Cultural Revolution and would not have been rebuilt if it were not for generous donations from Taiwanese, he said.
The temple, now managed by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism, charges visitors for entry, he added.
The National Palace Museum’s exhibition in Prague is a cultural exchange, as was the case when it organized exhibitions in France and other countries, Liang said.
A subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based company that has lost control of two critical ports on the Panama Canal said it is seeking US$2 billion of compensation in damages from Panama over its “illegal” takeover of the ports. Panama Ports Co, a unit of Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison Holdings (長江和記實業), on Friday said in a statement that it is demanding the sum under international arbitration proceedings that it had already started. The Panamanian government last week seized control of the Balboa and Cristobal ports on each end of the Panama Canal, after the country’s Supreme Court declared earlier that a concession allowing
DETERRENCE: With 1,000 indigenous Hsiung Feng II and III missiles and 400 Harpoon missiles, the nation would boast the highest anti-ship missile density in the world With Taiwan wrapping up mass production of Hsiung Feng II and III missiles by December and an influx of Harpoon missiles from the US, Taiwan would have the highest density of anti-ship missiles in the world, a source said yesterday. Taiwan is to wrap up mass production of the indigenous anti-ship missiles by the end of year, as the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has been meeting production targets ahead of schedule, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said. Combined with the 400 Harpoon anti-ship missiles Taiwan expects to receive from the US by 2028, the nation would have
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
RSS