Pope Francis responded favorably to an invitation to visit Taiwan, Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) told reporters yesterday after arriving at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport from a trip to the Vatican City.
Chen led a delegation to the canonization ceremony on Thursday last week for pope Paul VI, archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero and five others.
During a meeting with the pope before the ceremony, Chen extended an invitation on behalf of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to visit next year, when the pontiff is scheduled to travel to Japan.
Photo courtesy of Presidental Office
The invitation received “a cordial and amicable response” from the pope, Chen said.
During his visit he met with delegates of other nations and held discussions with several high-ranking Vatican officials on humanitarian and charitable programs that Taiwan and the Vatican have promoted, Chen said.
Vatican officials expressed their appreciation for the contributions made by Taiwan and praised it as an “important partner” of the Holy See in humanitarian and charitable efforts, he said.
Taiwan would continue its role as an indispensable partner of the Holy See and other nations in promoting religious freedom and world peace, he said.
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
A road safety advocacy group yesterday called for reforms to the driver licensing and retraining system after a pedestrian was killed and 15 other people were injured in a two-bus collision in Taipei. “Taiwan’s driver’s licenses are among the easiest to obtain in the world, and there is no mandatory retraining system for drivers,” Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance, a group pushing to reduce pedestrian fatalities, said in a news release. Under the regulations, people who have held a standard car driver’s license for two years and have completed a driver training course are eligible to take a test
Taiwan’s passport ranked 34th in the world, with access to 141 visa-free destinations, according to the latest update to the Henley Passport Index released today. The index put together by Henley & Partners ranks 199 passports globally based on the number of destinations holders can access without a visa out of 227, and is updated monthly. The 141 visa-free destinations for Taiwanese passport holders are a slight decrease from last year, when holders had access to 145 destinations. Botswana and Columbia are among the countries that have recently ended visa-free status for Taiwanese after “bowing to pressure from the Chinese government,” the Ministry
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