The Ministry of Foreign Affairs should prohibit government-funded organizations from attending official events held by the Chinese government, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) said yesterday, citing as an example a Taiwan Foundation for Democracy (TFD) official who attended China’s military parade last month.
Tsai asked Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lin (林永樂) during a question-and-answer session at the legislature’s Foreign and National Defense Committee whether it is appropriate for staff of government-subsidized institutes to attend the parade in Beijing.
“It is not appropriate,” Lin said.
Tsai was referring to George Tsai (蔡瑋), then-vice president of TFD who visited China and attended the military parade last month.
“The TFD is a foundation that is fully subsidized — with NT$105 million [US$3.23 million] – by the ministry,” the lawmaker said.
“The foundation is one that is supposed to champion democracy, liberty and human rights. George Tsai’s participation in the military parade has damaged the values upheld by the foundation,” he said.
Lin said he was not informed of the matter before or after the event.
“TFD president Huang Teh-fu (黃德福) also did not approve of the visit and asked George Tsai to leave. However, under pressure from higher authorities, he was able to stay in the foundation as a senior research fellow,” the lawmaker said.
Tsai Huang-liang added that George Tsai’s presence during the military parade was tantamount to an endorsement of China flexing its military muscle and denying Taiwanese sovereignty.
Lin said he would pass the legislator’s opinion on to the foundation, but did not promise to issue a ban, saying: “The foundation is an independently run organization.”
The TFD later said that George Tsai did not attend the military parade “in his capacity as the foundation’s vice president,” but as a professor at Chinese Culture University in Taipei.
The foundation added that George Tsai was transferred to his new post of senior research fellow because his term as vice president ended last month.
His term as research fellow, which started this month, is scheduled to end on June 16 next year, it said.
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
The 2025 Kaohsiung Wonderland–Winter Amusement Park event has teamed up with the Japanese manga series Chiikawa this year for its opening at Love River Bay yesterday, attracting more than 10,000 visitors, the city government said. Following the success of the “2024 Kaohsiung Wonderland” collaboration with a giant inflatable yellow duck installation designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, this year the Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau collaborated with Chiikawa by Japanese illustrator Nagano to present two giant inflatable characters. Two inflatable floats — the main character, Chiikwa, a white bear-like creature with round ears, and Hachiware, a white cat with a blue-tipped tail
RSS