Taiwan plans to hold a regional forum on securing religious freedom next year, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) told the third Ministerial to Advance Freedom of Religion or Belief in a recorded speech on Monday.
First launched by the US Department of State in 2018, the ministerial was held in Washington in 2018 and last year, while this year’s was hosted online by the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Department of North American Affairs Director-General Douglas Hsu (徐佑典) told a news conference in Taipei yesterday.
Taiwan has been invited to the ministerial in all three years, Hsu said.
Monday’s ministerial was opened by Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Zbigniew Rau and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the schedule on the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs Web site showed.
Yesterday’s session for non-governmental organizations was opened by Polish Secretary of State for Legal and Treaty Affairs, the UN, Consular and Parliamentary Affairs Piotr Wawrzyk and US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Samuel Brownback, it showed.
“While many countries have been occupied fighting COVID-19, authoritarian regimes have used the opportunity to impose their will on religious minorities,” Wu said in his speech, referring to the displacement, physical abuse and emotional torture experienced in Xinjiang by Uighurs and other Muslims.
“Here in Taiwan, religious freedom is enshrined in our Constitution and has become part of our daily life,” he said, adding that Taiwan stands with like-minded partners to defend the freedom to believe and to help victims of intolerance.
At the end of his speech, Wu announced the ministry’s plan to host a regional forum on securing religious freedom next year, saying it is “to show that we care about what is happening in other parts of the world.”
Ambassador-at-Large for Religious Freedom Pusin Tali also attended the online ministerial, while Representative to the US Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) gave a speech at the International Religious Freedom Roundtable yesterday, Hsu said.
In related news, the Mainland Affairs Council on Monday announced that it has commissioned the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy to cohost with the US Heritage Foundation an online forum today titled “US-Taiwan Partnership in Challenging Times.”
Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chen Ming-tong (陳明通) is to deliver a speech at the forum calling for peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, the council said.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
RSS