The Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission (MTAC) is making a 180-degree turn in its policy direction — from enhancing Taiwan’s relations with Mongolia and the Tibetan government-in-exile to promoting cross-strait exchanges.
“Little by little, MTAC has been pushing for exchanges [between Taiwan] and Mongolian and Tibetan regions in China,” MTAC chairman Kao Su-po (高思博) said at the commission’s lunar year-end press conference yesterday. “This year, we plan to invite doctors from [China’s] Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to attend training lessons in Taiwan to enhance the skills of medical workers in the region.”
Besides training doctors in Inner Mongolia, Kao said MTAC would also provide help to Inner Mongolia in preventing disasters brought by sand storms, as well as promoting exchanges in culture, public health and trade between Taiwanese and Mongolians and Tibetans in China.
“We are the supporting agency in cross-strait exchanges,” he said.
Addressing the Cabinet’s plan to subsume MTAC into the Mainland Affairs Council in 2012, Kao said the change could help MTAC “find a proper place when dealing with Mongolian and Tibetan affairs” as far as the Constitution is concerned.
Former MTAC member Sue Wang (王時思), however, disagreed with the new policy direction.
“MTAC must remember that it is part of the government of an independent country and that China is also an independent country. It would be odd for the policy objective of a government agency in this country to interact with ethnic groups in another country,” Wang told the Taipei Times in a telephone interview. “Following the same logic, should we also set up special commissions for dealing with African-American affairs or Caucasian-American affairs?”
Although MTAC was created in 1928 — when the Republic of China (ROC) government was still the legitimate government of China — to deal with Mongolian and Tibetan affairs, the agency was turned into a supporting agency in foreign affairs under the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration form 2000 to 2008, Wang said.
“As the ROC government used to regard Mongolia and Tibet as part of the ROC, both the Mongolian government and the Tibetan government-in-exile did not trust Taiwan. Mongolia even protested against the inclusion of Mongolia in the ROC map,” she said. “But during the DPP administration, the change in MTAC’s role helped Taiwan establish mutual trust with the Tibetan and Mongolian governments.”
In fact, MTAC may no longer consider the Tibetan government-in-exile a government at all.
Asked by the Taipei Times why MTAC would not accept the verification of authenticity of Green Books issued by the Tibetan government-in-exile for people who claim to be Tibetan refugees, Kao said the verification must come from “a proper government authority” and that the verification from “an exiled Tibetan organization” is not enough.
“This is just the opposite of what we used to do,” Wang said. “In the past, we would confirm the identity of a Tibetan refugee if the Tibetan government-in-exile could verify the person’s Tibetan refugee status.”
A recently discovered supernova is the brightest and closest to Earth identified in the past decade, and can be observed with basic equipment, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said on Wednesday. The supernova has an absolute magnitude of 14.9 in luminosity and is in the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101) about 21 million light-years from Earth. It was discovered early on May 20 by Japanese amateur astronomer Koichi Itagaki, who immediately reported the finding to the International Astronomical Union, the museum said. The supernova was designated SN 2023ixf following the astronomical naming conventions for supernovas, it added. The museum said that it observed
Tropical storm Guchol is moving in a northeasterly direction off the east coast of the Philippines and will not hit Taiwan, but will impact local weather starting on Friday, the Central Weather Bureau said Thursday. The storm would bring a low-pressure system northward toward the vicinity of Taiwan, forecaster Chao Hung (趙竑) said. Northern Taiwan will see intermittent rain showers in the morning, and thunderstorms in the afternoon on Friday, he said, adding that rain would be heavier on the east coast and in the central-southern mountainous areas. Rainfall would continue into Saturday, and would spread throughout Taiwan proper, he
Exiled Chinese democracy advocate Wang Dan (王丹) yesterday denied an accusation by former Taiwanese political worker Lee Yuan-chun (李援軍) that Wang had sexually harassed him in a hotel room in New York nine years ago. There was a huge gap between Lee’s accusation and his own understanding and memory, Wang wrote on Facebook, adding it was hard for him to respond further regarding a “unilateral description” made by someone else. Wang made the remarks after his initial response on Facebook was met with criticism, with people saying he did not directly address the allegation. Lee on Friday wrote on Facebook that he
A man was arrested in Hsinchu on Saturday on suspicion of filming women in the women’s washroom of a shopping mall in the city, local Chinese-language media reported on Thursday. The man was arrested at around noon on Saturday when a woman using a stall in the mall’s washroom noticed a cellphone being held above her from the neighboring stall, reports said. The woman ran out of the washroom and yelled to her husband to help her, after which the suspect – who was dressed as a woman – attempted to flee, but was subdued by other men until police
RSS