Taipei and the Chinese city of Xian launched a cooperative effort yesterday that will see a horticultural exposition held in Xian three days after the Taipei International Flora Expo concludes in April next year.
As a result of the joint effort and through exchanges between the two cities, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said he hoped environmental protection would take root and a win-win scenario would be created.
“To join heaven and man is an important concept of the thousands-year-old history of the Chinese nation,” Hau said. “To attach great importance to the environment is to realize such a concept.”
PHOTO:CNA
Xian Mayor Chen Baogen (陳寶根) said the joint effort bore significant meaning in the cooperation and exchange between “Shaanxi Province and Taiwan, and Xian and Taipei.”
Despite the warm words inside, the Chinese delegation were greeted by Falun Gong practitioners on their way out of the hotel where the announcement was made.
Calling Shaanxi Vice Governor and acting Governor Zhao Zhengyong (趙正永) the “scum of human rights,” the protesters said Zhao was not welcome in Taiwan because he had ordered the killing of many Falun Gong members.
Strangely enough, the protesters were not stopped by city personnel or the Chinese delegation, but rather by the bus driver transporting the Chinese delegation.
They engaged in physical clashes when the driver tried to stop the protesters from holding a banner that read “Persecution of Falun Gong, Zhao Zhengyong, you are charged with a criminal offense.”
On Monday, Falun Gong members filed a complaint at the Taiwan High Court Prosecutors' Office and they planned to sue Chinese Administration of Religious Affairs Director Wang Zuoan (王作安) today.
The 500-member delegation, led by Zhao, is the largest and highest-ranking delegation from the northwestern Chinese province to have visited Taiwan, and is scheduled to attend various events at this year's Taiwan-Shaanxi Week, held between yesterday and Sunday.
During a meeting with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Honorary Chairman Wu Po-hsiung (吳伯雄), Zhao said his delegation — the first Chinese group to visit Taiwan since the cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework agreement (ECFA) took effect on Sunday — will do its best to help implement the trade pact.
Three batches of banana sauce imported from the Philippines were intercepted at the border after they were found to contain the banned industrial dye Orange G, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. From today through Sept. 2 next year, all seasoning sauces from the Philippines are to be subject to the FDA’s strictest border inspection, meaning 100 percent testing for illegal dyes before entry is allowed, it said in a statement. Orange G is an industrial coloring agent that is not permitted for food use in Taiwan or internationally, said Cheng Wei-chih (鄭維智), head of the FDA’s Northern Center for
LOOKING NORTH: The base would enhance the military’s awareness of activities in the Bashi Channel, which China Coast Guard ships have been frequenting, an expert said The Philippine Navy on Thursday last week inaugurated a forward operating base in the country’s northern most province of Batanes, which at 185km from Taiwan would be strategically important in a military conflict in the Taiwan Strait. The Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted Northern Luzon Command Commander Lieutenant General Fernyl Buca as saying that the base in Mahatao would bolster the country’s northern defenses and response capabilities. The base is also a response to the “irregular presence this month of armed” of China Coast Guard vessels frequenting the Bashi Channel in the Luzon Strait just south of Taiwan, the paper reported, citing a
UNDER PRESSURE: The report cited numerous events that have happened this year to show increased coercion from China, such as military drills and legal threats The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) aims to reinforce its “one China” principle and the idea that Taiwan belongs to the People’s Republic of China by hosting celebratory events this year for the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, the “retrocession” of Taiwan and the establishment of the UN, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said in its latest report to the Legislative Yuan. Taking advantage of the significant anniversaries, Chinese officials are attempting to assert China’s sovereignty over Taiwan through interviews with international news media and cross-strait exchange events, the report said. Beijing intends to reinforce its “one China” principle
A total lunar eclipse, an astronomical event often referred to as a “blood moon,” would be visible to sky watchers in Taiwan starting just before midnight on Sunday night, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said. The phenomenon is also called “blood moon” due to the reddish-orange hue it takes on as the Earth passes directly between the sun and the moon, completely blocking direct sunlight from reaching the lunar surface. The only light is refracted by the Earth’s atmosphere, and its red wavelengths are bent toward the moon, illuminating it in a dramatic crimson light. Describing the event as the most important astronomical phenomenon
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