Taiwan’s representative office in New York has lodged a protest with the UN over a map published by one of its agencies that shows Taiwan as part of China.
The Women in Politics 2021 map, published by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and UN Women, shows the political participation rate of women in countries around the world, with Taiwan color-coded in red, the same as China, and the combined rate listed at 24.9 percent.
In a Facebook post on Thursday, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in New York wrote that the map flagrantly excluded Taiwan and disregarded its hard-won progress in the area of gender equality.
“We have a democratically elected female head of state Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), and 42% of our lawmakers are women,” TECO wrote.
“‘For Democracy. For Everyone’ shouldn’t be just a slogan,” it said, referring to the IPU’s motto.
The map is to be displayed at a virtual meeting held by the UN Commission of the Status of Women from Monday to March 26, and Taiwan will not be distinguished from China, as it had been in the past.
Although Taiwan is not a member of the UN, its rate of women’s participation in politics is higher than that of many other countries.
Since Tsai, the nation’s first female president, was re-elected in January last year, the ratio of women in the Legislative Yuan has climbed to a record 41.59 percent.
TECO New York Director James Lee (李光章) said that his office had filed a protest with the UN over the IPU-UN Women in Politics 2021 map and had also appealed to UN Women to separate Taiwan from China on the map.
“What Taiwan has achieved in gender equality is obvious,” Lee said on Wednesday.
It is well known globally that Taiwan has a democratically elected female president, and it is an undeniable fact that Taiwan is not part of China, he said.
“A chart demonstrating the global participation of women in politics will not be complete without Taiwan,” he said.
At a time when the UN is keenly advocating for democracy and women’s rights around the world, it should face up to the existence of Taiwan, Lee said.
Hong Kong singer Andy Lau’s (劉德華) concert in Taipei tonight has been cancelled due to Typhoon Kong-rei and is to be held at noon on Saturday instead, the concert organizer SuperDome said in a statement this afternoon. Tonight’s concert at Taipei Arena was to be the first of four consecutive nightly performances by Lau in Taipei, but it was called off at the request of Taipei Metro, the operator of the venue, due to the weather, said the organizer. Taipei Metro said the concert was cancelled out of consideration for the audience’s safety. The decision disappointed a number of Lau’s fans who had
Commuters in Taipei picked their way through debris and navigated disrupted transit schedules this morning on their way to work and school, as the city was still working to clear the streets in the aftermath of Typhoon Kong-rey. By 11pm yesterday, there were estimated 2,000 trees down in the city, as well as 390 reports of infrastructure damage, 318 reports of building damage and 307 reports of fallen signs, the Taipei Public Works Department said. Workers were mobilized late last night to clear the debris as soon as possible, the department said. However, as of this morning, many people were leaving messages
A Canadian dental assistant was recently indicted by prosecutors after she was caught in August trying to smuggle 32kg of marijuana into Taiwan, the Aviation Police Bureau said on Wednesday. The 30-year-old was arrested on Aug. 4 after arriving on a flight to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Chang Tsung-lung (張驄瀧), a squad chief in the Aviation Police Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division, told reporters. Customs officials noticed irregularities when the woman’s two suitcases passed through X-ray baggage scanners, Chang said. Upon searching them, officers discovered 32.61kg of marijuana, which local media outlets estimated to have a market value of more than NT$50 million (US$1.56
FATALITIES: The storm claimed at least two lives — a female passenger in a truck that was struck by a falling tree and a man who was hit by a utility pole Workers cleared fallen trees and shop owners swept up debris yesterday after one of the biggest typhoons to hit the nation in decades claimed at least two lives. Typhoon Kong-rey was packing winds of 184kph when it slammed into eastern Taiwan on Thursday, uprooting trees, triggering floods and landslides, and knocking out power as it swept across the nation. A 56-year-old female foreign national died from her injuries after the small truck she was in was struck by a falling tree on Provincial Highway 14A early on Thursday. The second death was reported at 8pm in Taipei on Thursday after a 48-year-old man
RSS