The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday decried alleged Chinese interference at the World Congress on Innovation & Technology in Penang, Malaysia, that saw the event’s organizers blocking a Taiwanese beauty queen from joining fellow pageant contestants onstage to greet congress attendees.
The incident, which happened on Tuesday, was exposed in a video uploaded to Facebook later that day by Taoyuan Department of Information Technology Director-General Karen Yu (余宛如).
The opening ceremony of the event on Tuesday featured contestants in the Miss Asia Global International Pageant, which started on Saturday and is to run until the weekend, greeting attendees in their native tongues and waving their national flags.
Photo: CNA
The video posted by Yu shows a congress staff member blocking Taiwanese contestant Kao Man-jung (高曼容) from going onstage, with Kao bursting into tears immediately afterward.
Chinese pressure is believed to be behind the event organizers’ action, which the ministry and Yu criticized.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the ministry strongly condemned China’s bullying of Taiwanese and its intervention in unofficial exchanges, while expressing “regret and frustration” over the “flawed decision” from the event organizers, for which it has asked the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Malaysia to issue a protest.
Photo: grab from Karen Yu FB
Taiwan is a sovereign country, and its people have the right to display their national flag at international events, the ministry said.
“China’s bullying is everywhere and has permeated even this information communications technology gala,” Yu said.
The Taiwanese attendees chanted slogans to let the audience know that Taiwan’s Miss Asia Global contestant was there, Yu said.
Photo: grab from FB
Event organizers later apologized to Kao, saying that due to a “last-minute change,” they could not allow her to appear onstage, Yu said.
“MOFA stands with Kao and all Taiwanese in their efforts to speak up for Taiwan in international settings in their respective fields of expertise,” the ministry said in the statement.
Separately yesterday, Frida Tsai (蔡培慧), the Democratic Progress Party’s candidate for Nantou County commissioner in the Nov. 26 local elections, said dictatorship would never prevail over democracy.
It is saddening and infuriating that Kao, a native of Nantou’s Puli Township (埔里), was blocked from appearing onstage at the Penang event due to Chinese pressure, she said, calling on people to express solidarity with Kao.
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