Following the severing of diplomatic relations between Taiwan and Senegal, the staff at the Taiwanese embassy in Senegal and their counterparts in this country will have to return home within one month, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Michel Lu (呂慶龍) said yesterday.
Lu said Ambassador Huang Yun-cheh (黃允哲) will return to Taipei within three days, while other embassy personnel and agricultural technology corps members -- who are spread around Senegal -- will finish packing their equipment and belongings and return to Taiwan within one month.
Senegal's diplomatic staff in Taipei and about 30 Senegalese students studying here on scholarships provided by Taiwan's government will have to leave the country within one month as well, Lu said in a press conference.
After announcing that it was severing ties with Senegal on Tuesday night, the government immediately stopped all aid programs to the country.
Lu said the manner in which Senegal abandoned Taiwan in favor of China was "crude," referring to the letter Senegalese President Abodoulaye Wade sent to President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) in which Wade said that between countries, there are no friends, only interests.
"They were extorting us [for money], threatening to opt for China if we didn't give them the amount of money they need," Lu said.
He said although Senegal is a democratic country, its national affairs, including diplomacy, are still centralized in the hands of Wade -- and that Wade, for the sake of his political interests in next year's parliamentary elections, chose China for monetary reasons.
According to the National Security Bureau's calculation, China has promised at least US$600 million in aid to Senegal and infrastructure projects worth billions of dollars, including the construction of a tunnel across the river on the border with Gambia and the development of local mining resources.
Taiwan had refused to invest in Senegal's mining industry because an evaluation showed a lack of local infrastructure, such as railway and port facilities, and the extent of mining resources was unclear.
"We won't compete with China in this kind of checkbook diplomacy," Lu said.
Meanwhile, Premier Frank Hsieh (
Chen said on Wednesday that he was prepared to step down at any time to take responsibility for the severance of diplomatic ties.
Hsieh said officials "don't have to resign for everything ... it is not the most correct approach."
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Ferry operators are planning to provide a total of 1,429 journeys between Taiwan proper and its offshore islands to meet increased travel demand during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, the Maritime and Port Bureau said yesterday. The available number of ferry journeys on eight routes from Saturday next week to Feb. 2 is expected to meet a maximum transport capacity of 289,414 passengers, the bureau said in a news release. Meanwhile, a total of 396 journeys on the "small three links," which are direct ferries connecting Taiwan's Kinmen and Lienchiang counties with China's Fujian Province, are also being planned to accommodate
RSS