■ Diplomacy
Racist gaffe upsets allies
The government yesterday apologized for offending African diplomats, who were served soup in paper bowls decorated with a drawing of a black boy with a lion, giraffe and jellyfish. The diplomats were touring factories when they stopped at a seafood restaurant for lunch last week. The restaurant served them soup in the bowls, which depicted a smiling black boy waving a leaf surrounded by the animals. The officials walked out of restaurant, calling the drawing offensive. Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesman Michel Lu (呂慶龍) apologized for the incident, but added that the manufacturer of the bowls probably didn't mean to belittle anyone with the drawing. "Taiwanese have been friendly to foreigners, and no one tried to offend our friends deliberately," Lu said. The diplomats were from Swaziland, Malawi, Chad, Senegal and the Republic of Sao Tome and Principe.
■ Politics
Fingerprinting urged
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) yesterday urged the Legislative Yuan not to review an amendment to the household registration law, saying that the requirement for citizens to be fingerprinted when claiming a new ID card should remain in place. Tsai made the remarks amid public concern about social order after two policemen were attacked from behind while patrolling the streets in Sijhih, Taipei County. One officer was killed and the other seriously injured. Under current law, citizens will be required to be fingerprinted when claiming the new version of the ID card which is set to be launched on July 1. The Executive Yuan recently proposed several revisions to the household registration law to remove the fingerprint requirement due to pressure from rights organizations.
■ Politics
Lien urged to criticize China
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) should speak for those whose basic human rights or religious freedoms have been oppressed by the Chinese government during his planned China visit, a Democratic Progressive Party legislative whip said yesterday. Chen Ching-jun (陳景峻) said at a news conference that 50.5 percent of the respondents in a just-released opinion poll voiced opposition to Lien's planned trip to meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), compared to 36.7 percent who gave a thumbs-up to Lien's travel plans. "The poll results indicate that more than half of the Taiwanese people don't support Lien's planned China visit, " Chen said, adding that if Lien insists on his travel plans in defiance of public opinion, he should be courageous enough to ask Chinese leaders to stop human rights abuses and cease suppression of Falun Gong and Catholic followers.
■ Politics
Ma puts Ishihara on ice
The Taipei City Government yesterday postponed an invitation to Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara to serve as spokesman for a Taipei travel journal's Japanese edition following a dispute over textbooks and a Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) visit to a contentious shrine, a city official said. Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) visited Tokyo last month and invited Ishihara to promote tourism in Taipei, the official said. However, the visit by TSU Chairman Shu Chin-chiang (蘇進強) to the Yasukuni Shrine on April 2 and Tokyo's decision three days later to approve a textbook glossing over its wartime atrocities led the city to postpone the plan. Two French artists have been asked to serve as spokesmen for the next issue of the magazine, the official said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
A magnitude 4.1 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 2:23pm today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was 5.4 kilometers northeast of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 34.9 km, according to the CWA. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was the highest in Hualien County, where it measured 2 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 1 in Yilan county, Taichung, Nantou County, Changhua County and Yunlin County, the CWA said. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
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