The current unrest in Hong Kong should serve as a warning to Taiwan to beware of China’s “political and economic embrace,” the Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA) said.
“We urge the people of Taiwan to resist the attempts of the current Kuomintang [KMT] government of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to move further with his rapprochement with China,” FAPA president Mark Kao (高龍榮) said.
FAPA, a Taiwanese-American grassroots organization with 54 chapters across the US, has also expressed its strong support for demonstrators in Hong Kong amid their struggle for democracy.
Kao said that FAPA “extends a hand in solidarity” to the Hong Kong protesters calling for more freedom, human rights and democracy.
“It is clear that Beijing’s promises of a ‘one country, two systems’ model for Hong Kong were empty promises and that Beijing is not honoring the commitments made in the 1984 Joint Declaration or the Basic Law,” Kao said.
He said that Beijing’s June 10 white paper and its Aug. 31 announcement that the candidates for Hong Kong’s chief executive election in 2017 must be approved by the central government show a “total disregard” for the basic principles of freedom and democracy.
“Even worse, when the people of Hong Kong took to the streets to peacefully express their views on these issues, they were met with riot police using tear gas and pepper spray — and that’s unconscionable,” Kao said.
What is happening in Hong Kong, he said, shows that closer ties with China would be detrimental for Taiwan’s future as a free and democratic nation.
Kao said that he supported the words of US Congressional Committee on Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Asia chairman Steve Cabot that Taiwan must be “very wary” when it comes to trusting China.
“We are seeing it now in Hong Kong,” Kao said. “Taiwan has to be very careful that they don’t get attracted into a situation that might seem like it is a good thing up front, but once you get involved with China you may find that you can’t get yourself out of their clutches.”
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
President William Lai (賴清德) has appointed former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) to attend the late Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican City on Saturday on his behalf, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today. The Holy See announced Francis’ funeral would take place on Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square. The ministry expressed condolences over Francis’ passing and said that Chen would represent Taiwan at the funeral and offer condolences in person. Taiwan and the Vatican have a long-standing and close diplomatic relationship, the ministry said. Both sides agreed to have Chen represent Taiwan at the funeral, given his Catholic identity and
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
Lawmakers from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday established a friendship group with their counterparts in Ukraine to promote parliamentary exchanges between the two countries. A ceremony in Taipei for the Taiwan-Ukraine Parliamentary Friendship Association, initiated by DPP Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷), was attended by lawmakers and officials, including Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) and European Economic and Trade Office in Taiwan Director Lutz Gullner. The increasingly dire situation in Ukraine is a global concern, and Taiwan cannot turn its back when the latter is in need of help, as the two countries share many common values and interests,
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