Following a slogan competition among Vincentians, FRIENDSHIP FREEDOM PROSPERITY, emerged as the winning entry which is being used to celebrate the 40 years of diplomatic relations between Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and the Republic of China (Taiwan).
On Sunday 15th August, 2021, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and the Republic of China (Taiwan) will celebrate 40 years of unbroken bi-lateral relations. The communique which established this relationship was signed in Taipei on 15th August, 1981, by the then Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the Right Honourable Robert Milton Cato and Former Premier H.E. Sun, Yun-suan of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Since then, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines’s population of 110,000 has been positively and consistently impacted in the areas of agricultural, health, educational and technical co-operation with the R.O.C. In 1991, the ICDF Taiwan Technical Mission was established in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and along with the Embassy of the Republic of China (Taiwan) in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, these agencies have effected the tangible, infrastructural and social indicators of bi-lateralism.
Within the last two years, particularly since the opening of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines’s Embassy to the Republic of China (Taiwan) on the 8th August, 2019, in Tianmu, Shilin District, the bonds between these two countries have been concretized. Taiwan has worked very generously with Saint Vincent and the Grenadines towards combating the pandemic caused by COVID-19, even while addressing its own challenges in this regard. Added to this, the government of Taiwan has pledged to donate US$300,000 towards Saint Vincent and the Grenadines’s Volcano Relief efforts following explosive eruptions of the country’s La Soufriere volcano in April, 2021. Indeed, residents of Taiwan, Vincentians and Taiwanese, have together contributed more than NTD 561,000 to Volcano Relief efforts. For its part, within this two year period, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines has used its seat on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to advocate for Taiwan’s inclusion in United Nations decision-making bodies like the World Health Assembly and the WHO by extension.
These two island-nations are bound by mutual respect for each other’s sovereignty and democracy. The integrity of this alliance has stood the tests and vicissitudes of time. We look forward to more than 40 more years of FRIENDSHIP FREEDOM PROSPERITY.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was