Chinese performers at an international folkdance festival in Israel touched off a diplomatic flap earlier this month by snatching a Taiwanese flag during the festival and bullying the Taiwanese troupe in attendance as they tried to protect their flag, Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials said yesterday.
Performing at the "22nd International Folkdance Festival" in Israel by invitation, a Hsinchu-based folkdance troupe was forced to protect its national flag as culture gave way to politics and dance to violence, said Antonio Chen (陳英賢), the ministry's director of West Asian Affairs.
"Before, it was mainly just the Chinese government trying to suppress Taiwan through diplomatic channels," Chen said at a routine press briefing yesterday. "Now, it's Chinese citizens directly bullying Taiwanese citizens."
enraged
Ministry spokesman David Wang (王建業) told reporters that Chinese dancers became enraged during a performance in the Israeli city of Afula on July 4 after seeing the Taiwanese flag displayed on-stage alongside the national flags of other participating foreign troupes.
The livid Chinese dancers then snatched the flag, creating a ruckus that quickly snowballed into a diplomatic incident as Israeli police were called in to restore order, Chen said.
"Our dancers were shocked and angry," he said.
The brouhaha escalated after the Taiwanese troupe, "doing as any civilized national would," began waving the Taiwanese flag during their performance to protest the Chinese dancers' "uncivilized behavior," Wang said yesterday.
The ministry said that one of its representatives on site served as a bodyguard for the troupe as it tried to fend off attacks by the Chinese dancers.
At that point, Israeli police arrived at the scene and confiscated both the Chinese and Taiwanese troupes' flags.
The Chinese embassy in Israel pressured event organizers into forbidding the Taiwanese troupe from waving its flag during a performance scheduled for the following day -- a move that led to the Taiwanese troupe's withdrawal from the festival, it said.
The ministry later released a statement stating that "the foreign affairs ministry strongly condemns China's brutal political interference in a cultural exchange event and deeply regrets that organizers didn't adhere to just and fair principles in its treatment of Taiwan's troupe."
Chen said yesterday that Taiwan would request that in similar future international events Chinese and Taiwanese participants be separated.
Chinese participants at international events are known to have assaulted or bullied Taiwanese in attendance.
At the International Children's Games in Thailand last year, Chinese sports officials yanked Taiwanese flags off the shoulders of two Taipei swimming champions as they walked toward a stage to collect their gold medals. Other foreign winners wore their respective national flags during the ceremony.
In January, Minister of Education Tu Cheng-sheng's (
POLAM KOPITIAM CASE: Of the two people still in hospital, one has undergone a liver transplant and is improving, while the other is being evaluated for a liver transplant A fourth person has died from bongkrek acid poisoning linked to the Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday, as two other people remain seriously ill in hospital. The first death was reported on March 24. The man had been 39 years old and had eaten at the restaurant on March 22. As more cases of suspected food poisoning involving people who had eaten at the restaurant were reported by hospitals on March 26, the ministry and the Taipei Department of Health launched an investigation. The Food and
The long-awaited Taichung aquarium is expected to open next year after more than a decade of development. The building in Cingshui District (清水) is to feature a large ocean aquarium on the first floor, coral display area on the second floor, a jellyfish tank and Dajia River (大甲溪) basin display on the third, a river estuary display and restaurant on the fourth, and a cafe and garden on the fifth. As it is near Wuci Fishing Port (梧棲漁港), many are expecting the opening of the aquarium to bring more tourism to the harbor. Speaking at the city council on Monday, Taichung City Councilor
A fourth person has died in a food poisoning outbreak linked to the Xinyi (信義) branch of Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in Taipei, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said on Monday. It was the second fatality in three days, after another was announced on Saturday. The 40-year-old woman experienced multiple organ failure in the early hours on Monday, and the family decided not to undergo emergency resuscitation, Wang said. She initially showed signs of improvement after seeking medical treatment for nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, but her condition worsened due to an infection, he said. Two others who
Taiwanese should be mindful when visiting China, as Beijing in July is likely to tighten the implementation of policies on national security following the introduction of two regulations, a researcher said on Saturday. China on Friday unveiled the regulations governing the law enforcement and judicial activities of national security agencies. They would help crack down on “illegal” and “criminal” activities that Beijing considers to be endangering national security, according to reports by China’s state media. The definition of what constitutes a national security threat in China is vague, Taiwan Thinktank researcher Wu Se-chih (吳瑟致) said. The two procedural regulations are to provide Chinese