The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is preparing a series of events next month to mark the 20th anniversary of its Department of NGO International Affairs, including a ceremony to recognize outstanding non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and a forum to gather opinions about Chinese suppression of Taiwan.
The department was established in October 2000 to promote international cooperation and help domestic civic groups join global NGOs, Department of NGO International Affairs Director-General Constance Wang (王雪虹) told a news conference in Taipei yesterday.
It would be the first time that the ministry has awarded NGOs and the ceremony, a tea party at the Taipei Guest House on Oct. 14, is to be attended by Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), Wang said.
Photo: Lu Yi-hsuan, Taipei Times
Awards are to be presented to NGOs with outstanding achievements in six major areas — public policy; healthcare; humanitarian aid; social welfare; environmental sustainability; and sports and culture, she said, adding that the department had formed a task force to select the winners.
Up to 45 groups are to set up stands on the sidelines of the event to share their achievements, Wang said, adding that foreign representatives of the nations that have collaborated with the NGOs would also be invited to the ceremony.
The ministry is to hold a leadership forum on Oct. 13 and Oct. 14 at its Institute of Diplomacy and International Affairs to exchange opinions with NGOs on issues such as how to respond to China’s suppression of Taiwan on the world stage; how to boost Taiwan’s global participation; fostering international affairs talent; promoting Taiwan’s visibility through digital technology; and improving fundraising skills, Wang said.
The department and the NGOs plan to issue a joint statement at the forum to promote even closer partnerships in the future, she said.
In addition, an exhibition at the institute from Oct. 12 to Oct. 16 would showcase Taiwan’s efforts to assist Nepal with reconstruction after the South Asian nation was devastated by a magnitude 7.8 earthquake in April 2015, Wang said.
Featuring documentaries, photographs and written records, the exhibition would demonstrate how the department used NT$196 million (US$6.72 million) of donations to help Nepal with its reconstruction efforts, she said.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift