The push by President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration to exhibit National Palace Museum relics in Japan is widely seen as a pro-China gambit, a Taiwanese politician who has good connections in Japanese politics said.
According to the source, who wished to remain anonymous, his Japanese politician friends who hold a friendly attitude toward Taiwan worry that the planned National Palace Museum overseas exhibition in Japan would become an indirect advertisement for Chinese culture.
The exhibition — planned to take place in the Tokyo National Museum from June to September 2014 — has been pushed for by the Ma administration since 2008.
Commenting on the exhibition, the Taiwanese politician said his Japanese contacts said the artifacts at the museum had all come from China and were not Taiwanese.
The source quoted the Japanese politicians as asking how the exhibition of Chinese cultural artifacts would help Taiwanese-Japanese relations.
The source said the politicians said it could foster the misunderstanding that Taiwan is a part of China and that Taiwan itself has a very rich and beautiful culture that could be promoted instead.
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