Signing up as chair of the National Institute of Cyber Security instead of as a minister allowed Minister of Digital Affairs Audrey Tang (唐鳳) to participate in a UN meeting without compromising the nation’s dignity, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday.
The ministry issued the remarks after receiving criticism from the media for the move.
Tang attended the annual meeting of the UN Internet Governance Forum held in Kyoto, Japan, in October last year, but not in a capacity as minister, and despite being in the city, Tang opted to join the meeting virtually, Taiwanese media reported, criticizing the minister for her “self-deprecation.”
Photo: Taipei Times file
Taiwan was invited by the US to participate in the Internet Governance Forum The Declaration for the Future of the Internet: Principles to Action that was held on the first day of the meeting, the ministry said, adding that Tang was Taiwan’s signatory of the Declaration for the Future of the Internet in April 2022.
In the register system of the UN, government officials have to choose their nationalities while signing up for UN events, the ministry said.
Taiwan is not included in the options as the nation is not a UN member state.
Tang signed up as the “chair of the National Institute of Cyber Security” to participate without compromising Taiwan’s dignity, the ministry said, adding that Tang’s physical presence at the meeting might have prompted unwanted reactions from “unfriendly parties,” so she participated online instead, it added.
Tang still traveled to Japan at the time, seizing the rare opportunity to exchange views on relevant issues with important figures and officials from friendly countries on the sidelines of the meeting, it said.
Meanwhile, when Tang was invited to participate in the Freedom Online Coalition (FOC) ministerial meeting in September last year, she stated she only had a diplomatic passport, but not a personal passport, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) yesterday quoted a source familiar with the issue as saying.
The US authority stamped her visa on a blank paper rather than on a page in her passport, the source said.
In response, the ministry yesterday said that Tang lost her personal passport right before leaving for the US for a closed-door meeting at the invitation of California Governor Gavin Newsom in March last year and therefore Tang asked the US if she would be able to travel with her diplomatic passport.
After deliberation, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) issued a B1/B2 visitor visa to Tang for the trip, the ministry said.
The AIT in September last year followed this precedent and issued another B1/B2 visa to Tang for her to participate in the FOC meeting, it added.
At the meeting, Tang exchanged views with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken; US Undersecretary for Civilian Security, Democracy and Human Rights Uzra Zeya; US Ambassador at Large for Cyberspace and Digital Policy Nathaniel Fick; as well as heads of digital and diplomatic affairs of 38 countries, it said.
Additional reporting by Kao Chia-ho
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