Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission Minister Kao Su-po (高思博) yesterday voiced support for President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) stance that Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama should not visit now.
Kao made the remarks when answering questions from Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wong Chin-chu (翁金珠) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chang Ching-chung (張慶忠) about the Association of Taiwan Journalists’ invitation to the Dalai Lama and his recent statements that he would like to visit Taiwan again.
“The Dalai Lama’s visit is a highly sensitive issue, and we [the government] think the timing is not appropriate at the moment after our assessments,” Kao said. “We have to consider how other countries would react to [the Dalai Lama’s visit to Taiwan] and make the best judgment for Taiwan’s national interests.”
“As an old friend, I think the Dalai Lama would understand the difficulties we’re facing now,” he said.
Kao added that the Dalai Lama once rejected Taiwan’s invitation to visit in 2002, when the Tibetan government-in-exile was holding talks with Beijing.
Kao’s comments echoed Ma’s words at a press conference in December, despite the fact that earlier last year, Ma said that he would welcome the spiritual leader’s visit following his inauguration in May.
The exiled government’s representative, Dawa Tsering, said that the commission had nothing to do with the Dalai Lama’s visit.
“Whether the Dalai Lama would visit Taiwan has nothing to do with the commission, and the Dalai Lama will not be in touch with them through any means at all,” he told the Taipei Times. “Besides, although the Dalai Lama expressed his wish to visit Taiwan, he has no concrete plan at the moment.”
It’s a policy of the exiled Tibetan government to stay out of contact with the commission as it considers both Tibetans and Mongolians to be part of the Republic of China.
Taiwan Friends of Tibet chairwoman Chow Mei-li (周美里), meanwhile, panned the government for the remark.
“Many individuals and organizations around the country have expressed their wish to invite the Dalai Lama to Taiwan. A democratically elected government should not only listen to what other countries — notably China — have to say about what we do, it should listen to what the majority of its own people have to say,” Chow said.
Foreign tourists who purchase a seven-day Taiwan Pass are to get a second one free of charge as part of a government bid to boost tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. A pair of Taiwan Passes is priced at NT$5,000 (US$156.44), an agency staff member said, adding that the passes can be used separately. The pass can be used in many of Taiwan’s major cities and to travel to several tourist resorts. It expires seven days after it is first used. The pass is a three-in-one package covering the high-speed rail system, mass rapid transport (MRT) services and the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle services,
Drinking a lot of water or milk would not help a person who has ingested terbufos, a toxic chemical that has been identified as the likely cause of three deaths, a health expert said yesterday. An 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾) and two others died this week after eating millet dumplings with snails that Tseng had made. Tseng died on Tuesday and others ate the leftovers when they went to her home to mourn her death that evening. Twelve people became ill after eating the dumplings following Tseng’s death. Their symptoms included vomiting and convulsions. Six were hospitalized, with two of them
DIVA-READY: The city’s deadline for the repairs is one day before pop star Jody Chiang is to perform at the Taipei Dome for the city’s Double Ten National Day celebrations The Taipei City Government has asked Farglory Group (遠雄集團) to repair serious water leaks in the Taipei Dome before Friday next week, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday, following complaints that many areas at the stadium were leaking during two baseball games over the weekend. The dome on Saturday and Sunday hosted two games in tribute to CTBC Brothers’ star Chou Szu-chi (周思齊) ahead of his retirement from the CPBL. The games each attracted about 40,000 people, filling the stadium to capacity. However, amid heavy rain, many people reported water leaking on some seats, at the entrance and exit areas, and the
BIG collection: The herbarium holds more than 560,000 specimens, from the Japanese colonial period to the present, including the Wulai azalea, which is now extinct in the wild The largest collection of plant specimens in Taiwan, the Taipei Botanical Garden’s herbarium, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an exhibition that opened on Friday. The herbarium provides critical historical documents for botanists and is the first of its kind in Taiwan, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute director Tseng Yen-hsueh (曾彥學) said. It is housed in a two-story red brick building, which opened during 1924. At the time, it stored 30,000 plant specimens from almost 6,000 species, including Taiwanese plant samples collected by Tomitaro Makino, the “father of Japanese botany,” Tseng said. The herbarium collection has grown in the century since its