The Delphi Economic Forum yesterday corrected Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) title on its Web site from “former president of Taipei” to “former president of Taiwan” following calls from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ma’s office about the error.
The change was made within hours of the Ma’s profile appearing on the forum’s site, with the original wording prompting criticism from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) said the mistaken title was inappropriate and a “serious error.”
Photo: screen grab from the Delphi Economic Forum Web site
Ma’s office yesterday said the invitation to address the forum had referred to Ma as “former president of the Republic of China,” and that it had asked the forum to correct the error when it was spotted.
Ma’s office said it thanked the ministry for moving quickly to request a correction from the forum.
“It is important for non-governmental groups to speak to the world even when President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) government has been unable,” Ma’s office said.
Ma is scheduled to talk at the forum about how to achieve peace with China in ways that differ from the DPP’s approach, his office said on Thursday last week.
Ma’s seeming acceptance of “Taiwan” over “Republic of China” in the corrected title contradicts his stance that both sides of the Strait acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means, DPP Legislator Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) said.
Tsai’s “pragmatic diplomacy” has garnered support for Taiwan from a “global alliance of democratic countries,” while she has met two serving speakers of the US House of Representatives and secured an invitation to the APEC leaders’ summit, Su said.
“The choice put before Taiwan in 2024 will be to follow the worn-out cross-strait policy of Ma from Taipei or President Tsai of Taiwan,” she said. “The right choice cannot be more obvious.”
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it is fully aware of the situation following reports that the son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has arrived in Taiwan and is to marry a Taiwanese. Local media reported that Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), son of the former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is to marry the granddaughter of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital founder Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政). The pair met when studying abroad and arranged to get married this year, with the wedding breakfast to be held at The One holiday resort in Hsinchu
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
‘SIGN OF DANGER’: Beijing has never directly named Taiwanese leaders before, so China is saying that its actions are aimed at the DPP, a foundation official said National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) yesterday accused Beijing of spreading propaganda, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had singled out President William Lai (賴清德) in his meeting with US President Joe Biden when talking about those whose “true nature” seek Taiwanese independence. The Biden-Xi meeting took place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru on Saturday. “If the US cares about maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial that it sees clearly the true nature of Lai and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in seeking Taiwanese independence, handles the Taiwan question with extra
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
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