China's national flag was taken down at an international conference yesterday when President Chen Shui-bian (
As China is a member of the World Congress of Master Tailors, its national flag, along with those from more than a dozen other countries, was hung at the venue at the International Convention Center.
However, the organizers removed the Chinese flag hanging in the conference hall where Chen delivered the opening speech. Security personnel also guided Chen so that he could avoid seeing another flag hanging over the escalators in the first-floor lobby while leaving the venue.
PHOTO: LIAO CHEN-HUEI, TAIPEI TIMES
Organizers said they took down the Chinese flag at the conference hall because Chinese representatives were visiting Sun Moon Lake in Nantou County and could not attend yesterday's opening ceremony. The flag was put back up after Chen left.
The organizers also said they planned to play the Chinese national anthem, but dropped the plan because the Chinese delegation failed to provide them with the recorded tape.
This year marked the first time Taiwan has hosted the biennial conference of the World Congress of Master Tailors, which was founded in 1935. More than 300 designers and representatives from 16 countries in the tailoring industry attended the conference, which runs through Friday.
Taiwan joined the organization in 2003 and won the top honor in women's clothing and silver prize in men's clothing at the Golden Needle and Golden Thread International Competition in Berlin, Germany, in 2005.
The competition is part of the official schedule for the World Congress, which was founded to encourage tailors to pass on their skills to the next generation.
Aside from speaking at the opening ceremony, Chen met foreign guests attending the conference at the Presidential Office yesterday afternoon.
Chen told the guests that Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) would participate in tonight's fashion show, wearing an outfit tailor-made for her by a congress member.
Chen said that Taiwan ranked as the world's sixth-most creative country, with its creativity covering a wide range from semiconductors and flat-screen panels to baseball, filmmaking and tailoring.
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, was arrested in Boston last month amid US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday. The arrest of Liou was first made public on the official Web site of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday. ICE said Liou was apprehended for overstaying her visa. The Boston Field Office’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) had arrested Liou, a “fugitive, criminal alien wanted for embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes in Taiwan,” ICE said. Liou was taken into custody
The US-Japan joint statement released on Friday not mentioning the “one China” policy might be a sign that US President Donald Trump intends to decouple US-China relations from Taiwan, a Taiwanese academic said. Following Trump’s meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Friday, the US and Japan issued a joint statement where they reaffirmed the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Trump has not personally brought up the “one China” policy in more than a year, National Taiwan University Department of Political Science Associate Professor Chen Shih-min (陳世民)
‘NEVER!’ Taiwan FactCheck Center said it had only received donations from the Open Society Foundations, which supports nonprofits that promote democratic values Taiwan FactCheck Center (TFC) has never received any donation from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), a cofounder of the organization wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday. The Taipei-based organization was established in 2018 by Taiwan Media Watch Foundation and the Association of Quality Journalism to monitor and verify news and information accuracy. It was officially registered as a foundation in 2021. National Chung Cheng University communications professor Lo Shih-hung (羅世宏), a cofounder and chairman of TFC, was responding to online rumors that the TFC receives funding from the US government’s humanitarian assistance agency via the Open Society Foundations (OSF),
ANNUAL LIGHT SHOW: The lanterns are exhibited near Taoyuan’s high-speed rail station and around the Taoyuan Sports Park Station of the airport MRT line More than 400 lanterns are to be on display at the annual Taiwan Lantern Festival, which officially starts in Taoyuan today. The city is hosting the festival for the second time — the first time was in 2016. The Tourism Administration held a rehearsal of the festival last night. Chunghwa Telecom donated the main lantern of the festival to the Taoyuan City Government. The lanterns are exhibited in two main areas: near the high-speed rail (HSR) station in Taoyuan, which is at the A18 station of the Taoyuan Airport MRT, and around the Taoyuan Sports Park Station of the MRT