DIPLOMACY
Ma departs for summit
Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday departed for Singapore to attend the Asia Future Summit being held today and tomorrow, his office said. Ma was invited by the Chinese-language Lianhe Zaobao newspaper to speak at the summit, which is being organized for the first time by the Straits Times and the Business Times to mark the contribution of former Singaporean prime minister Lee Kuan Yew (李光耀) to promoting peace across the Taiwan Strait, the statement said. During the visit, Ma is also to lead a delegation of 30 Taiwanese students from the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation’s Dajiu Academy to visit Singapore’s public housing units, port operation control centers and the Singapore City Gallery, it said.
DIPLOMACY
Paris deputy mayor to visit
Paris Deputy Mayor Jean-Luc Romero-Michel on Monday announced a plan to visit Taiwan and attend the LGBT Pride parade at the end of this month. In addition to making the announcement on X after meeting with Representative to France Francois Wu (吳志中) on Monday, Romero-Michel said: “I reaffirmed my support against pressure from China.” Taiwan, the first nation in the Asia-Pacific region to legalize same-sex marriage, is to hold the parade on Oct. 28. “I will be there,” Romero-Michel said. As deputy mayor, Romero-Michel is in charge of human rights affairs, and is at the forefront of supporting democracy and freedom. He has attended many demonstrations in Paris in support of the rights of Uighurs and Tibetans. He has also on several occasions publicly supported Taiwan and condemned China’s intimidation, including at the centenary celebration of the International Federation for Human Rights in October last year.
DIPLOMACY
St Lucia trip a success
Forty “youth ambassadors” have concluded a 10-day-trip to St Lucia to enhance bilateral exchanges and people-to-people ties with the Caribbean ally, said Constance Wang (王雪虹), head of the Department of NGO International Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Taiwanese aged 18 to 35 were in St Lucia from Sept. 2 to 11. Wang said that the ministry recruited people who have won cooking contests to be part of the delegation for the first time. Having four skilled young Taiwanese chefs in St Lucia was a success, she said, adding that they had planned to hold one baking workshop, but eventually held two due to strong demand. The delegation also hosted “Taiwan Cultural Camps” at four schools and met with local political leaders.
HEALTH
Mangosteens seized
Mangosteens imported from Thailand were stopped at the border for the second consecutive week because they contained excessive amounts of an insecticide, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. The mangosteens imported by Greather Fruit Trading Co contained 0.05mg/kg of the insecticide cypermethrin, well above the maximum permissible limit of 0.01mg/kg, the FDA said, adding that the 1,704kg batch would be destroyed or returned to its country of origin. Mangosteens imported by the same company were also blocked at the border last week because they contained excessive levels of cadmium. The FDA’s weekly report on intercepted imports showed that 15 other goods, including Vietnamese durians, Japanese peaches and pears, and parsley from the Netherlands, were also either destroyed or returned to their country of origin.
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
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