Taiwan is making friends in the world through cultural exchanges, while the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is making threatening gestures and revealing its own shortcomings, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said in an interview in Prague.
Lin on Wednesday last week traveled to Europe to visit several countries, with his first stop being the Czech Republic. The rest of his itinerary has not been released to avoid Chinese interference.
On Thursday, Lin attended the opening ceremony of “One Hundred Selected Masterpieces of the National Palace Museum and Their Stories” at the National Museum in Prague.
Photo: CNA
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) criticized the exhibition, saying that the Democratic Progressive Party government is promoting “cultural Taiwanese independence” and “removing Chinese influence” from Taiwan.
Lin on Friday said in an interview with the Central News Agency that the nature of the exhibition is cultural exchange, specifically between two national museums, and is not politically driven.
Regarding online comments that the National Palace Museum’s artifacts belong to China, Lin said that the items are common assets of modern people and a part of the world civilization.
The concept of “China” as a state did not appear early in history, as there were many dynasties and regimes, and the CCP during the Cultural Revolution sought to destroy “the Four Olds,” resulting in the destruction of many artifacts, he said.
The “Four Olds” were “old ideas, culture, customs and habits.”
That the National Palace Museum’s artifacts have been kept in Taiwan has preserved important Chinese cultural heritage, he added.
Lin thanked the Czech government and Czechs for giving enough space for culture and not letting it be interfered with politically.
“I believe that after this exhibition, the CCP will know that while they politicize everything, politics cannot dominate all cultural, societal, economic and technological exchanges,” he said.
The CCP wishes to monopolize the right to represent China and claims that using the name Taiwan equals to “Taiwanese independence,” which does not make sense, he said.
“In international society, China is like a ‘wolf warrior,’ baring fangs and brandishing claws, but this behavior only reveals its own shortcomings, which we do not need to care about that much, as it is an expression of lacking self-confidence,” he said.
“Taiwan is making friends in the world through cultural exchanges, while everything for the CCP is for serving politics, including its Confucius Institutes,” Lin said, adding that Beijing sees “culture” as a part of its power and needs it to be homogeneous.
Taiwan is a free and democratic society that respects and appreciates differences, while the CCP tries to eliminate differences, which underlines the significant difference between the two sides regarding culture, he said.
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