The Government Information Office (GIO) will abandon its decade-old emblem which features an image of China, sources said yesterday.
The GIO emblem, a Republic of China national flag and a map of China, was created under the instruction of former GIO director-general Shaw Yu-ming (邵玉銘), who was the KMT government spokesman from 1987 to 1991.
GIO officials said the move to abolish the emblem stemmed from pragmatic rather than political considerations.
"It's not necessary to have any overly politicized association with this change of emblem," said a GIO official, who declined to be named, when asked if the change was triggered by the DPP-led government's pro-independence stance.
The official said the existing emblem had triggered what he termed "disturbances," with many overseas visitors to the GIO offices expressing confusion over the emblem.
"It's often the case that foreign guests visiting the GIO headquarters would ask us what that emblem meant, and it's fairly likely that any further explanation could make the whole thing become even more blurred," the official said.
Director-General of the GIO Su Tzen-ping (蘇正平) will hold a press conference tomorrow formally introducing a new emblem, which will feature a bridge, symbolizing the GIO's role as a bridge between the government and the public, sources said.
The choice of new emblem was made by GIO employees, who were asked to vote for one of two designs, the official said.
Some critics, however, said the change of the GIO emblem was indicative of the growing alienation of China as a result of attempts by former president Lee Teng-hui (
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