Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is to depart on Friday for Lithuania, where she is to meet with former Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaite before heading to Denmark to speak at the Copenhagen Democracy Summit.
The former president looks forward to strengthening ties with democratic nations in Europe and fostering a deeper understanding of Taiwan, Tsai’s office spokesperson Tsai Shu-ching (蔡舒景) said.
As well as meeting for discussions with Grybauskaite, she is to speak at Vilnius University, the spokesperson said.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Lithuania is an important international partner to Taiwan that shares the values of democracy, freedom and human rights, Tsai Shu-ching said, adding that Tsai Ing-wen hopes to work together to strengthen their democratic and economic resilience.
After visiting Lithuania, the former president is to attend the Copenhagen Democracy Summit by the Alliance of Democracies to speak on Taiwan’s continued efforts to establish partnerships with democratic allies and ensure regional peace and stability, the spokesperson said.
Tsai Ing-wen is to also thank the summit for its continued support of Taiwan over the years, they added.
The summit, which is to be held on Tuesday and Wednesday next week, would be attended by world leaders from democratic nations, experts in science and technology, think tanks, civil society groups and activists from Hong Kong, Tsai Shu-ching added.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of