Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA) president Mark Kao (高龍榮) has called on the US government to protest China’s attempts to restrict Taiwan’s international space.
“Taiwan should be a full and equal member in the international family of nations,” Kao said.
In a statement issued on Friday, FAPA said that promises of a “rapprochement” across the Taiwan Strait were leading to diminished international space for Taiwan.
FAPA, a Washington-based Taiwanese-American advocacy organization, issued the statement to express concern about two recent events “showing that China is still attempting to deny Taiwan international space.”
The two events were the Beijing administration’s reaction to President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) trip to Rome to attend the inauguration of Pope Francis and the decision by the Indonesian government in Jakarta to deny a delegation from Taiwan access to an international defense conference after objections from China.
Beijing has urged the Vatican to dissolve ties with Taiwan and it pushed Indonesian authorities to withdraw an invitation to a Taiwanese delegation to the Jakarta International Defense Dialogue.
“China’s continued efforts to undermine Taiwan’s presence at such international events do clearly show that Ma’s diplomatic truce is not working,” Kao said.
“China’s moves are also in clear contradiction to stated US policy, which says that the US supports meaningful participation by Taiwan in international organizations,” he said. “We call on the US government to protest China’s attempts to restrict Taiwan’s international space.”
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
‘MALIGN PURPOSE’: Governments around the world conduct espionage operations, but China’s is different, as its ultimate goal is annexation, a think tank head said Taiwan is facing a growing existential threat from its own people spying for China, experts said, as the government seeks to toughen measures to stop Beijing’s infiltration efforts and deter Taiwanese turncoats. While Beijing and Taipei have been spying on each other for years, experts said that espionage posed a bigger threat to Taiwan due to the risk of a Chinese attack. Taiwan’s intelligence agency said China used “diverse channels and tactics” to infiltrate the nation’s military, government agencies and pro-China organizations. The main targets were retired and active members of the military, persuaded by money, blackmail or pro-China ideology to steal
RSS