Overseas Taiwanese held a parade on Saturday in New York City to call for Taiwan’s inclusion in the UN as the 78th session of the UN General Assembly gets under way.
About 300 Taiwanese people walked from the Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China in midtown Manhattan to the New York Public Library.
While walking in the city, the participants held flags and banners with slogans and chanted “Keep Taiwan Free” and “UN for Taiwan.”
Photo: CNA
They boarded a cruise ship, which had a banner hanging that said “UN Membership for Taiwan Now! Keep Taiwan Free,” and passed through the East River and near the Statue of Liberty.
The ship sailed past the UN Headquarters toward the end of the trip.
Hsu Puo-chen (許伯丞), the event organizer, said that this was the first time the parade was followed by a cruise trip, with the hope that more people in New York could learn about Taiwan’s exclusion from the UN and support the nation’s bid to join.
Photo: CNA
The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York expressed Taiwan’s desire to meaningfully participate in the UN by having an animated short film broadcast in Times Square, which has been done for many years.
The short film featured a pink-orange background and imagery of Taiwan’s mountains and seas. Taiwan blue magpies were shown flying towards the UN, symbolizing Taiwanese people’s desire to join hands with the world to safeguard peace.
The office also tried a new method to promote Taiwan’s bid this year: having a food truck.
The truck had the slogan “Global Peace with Taiwan” printed on it and it offered winter melon tea, guava juice and bubble milk tea popsicles to New Yorkers along with interactive games.
“The world is safe when Taiwan is safe, the world is peaceful when the Taiwan Strait is peaceful — these are the consensus of the international society,” office director James Lee (李光章) said.
The purpose of the UN is to maintain peace and security globally, which includes taking effective actions to safeguard peace and eliminate threats, he said.
Legislators Tsai Shih-ying (蔡適應), Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃), Chen Ming-wen (陳明文), Chen Ou-po (陳歐珀), Chang Hung-lu (張宏陸), Lai Hsiang-ling (賴香伶) and Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華) joined the parade and volunteered at the food truck.
“There are food trucks everywhere in New York. It is very important to promote Taiwan in a way that is close to the local culture and let everyone know more about Taiwan and where it is,” Chen Ting-fei said.
The group of legislators went to New York “to get the world hear Taiwan’s desire to join the UN and participate in all its organizations,” Chang said.
Belizean Ambassador to the UN Carlos Fuller and Palauan Representative to the UN Ilana Seid took part in the food truck launching event and voiced support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in the UN and its contribution to the organization’s Sustainable Development Goals.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
A Taiwanese academic yesterday said that Chinese Ambassador to Denmark Wang Xuefeng (王雪峰) disrespected Denmark and Japan when he earlier this year allegedly asked Japan’s embassy to make Taiwan’s representatives leave an event in Copenhagen. The Danish-language Berlingske on Sunday reported the incident in an article with the headline “The emperor’s birthday ended in drama in Copenhagen: More conflict may be on the way between Denmark and China.” It said that on Feb. 26, the Japanese embassy in Denmark held an event for Japanese Emperor Naruhito’s birthday, with about 200 guests in attendance, including representatives from Taiwan. After addressing the Japanese hosts, Wang
RSS