Taiwan National Day: Taiwan thanks ‘friends in India’ while China fumes
DHARAMSALA, 12 Oct: Taiwan has thanked ‘friends in India’ for celebrating and making 109th Taiwan National Day unusually noticeable.
“Thank you to all of our dear friends in India for your well wishes on #TaiwanNationalDay. Together, we can take pride in safeguarding our shared values like freedom & human rights, & defending our democratic way of life. #namaste,” Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen tweeted.
Additionally, a signed tweet from Taiwan’s foreign minister Jaushieh Joseph Wu has reserved special praise to India for marking Taiwan national day.
“Hats off to friends from around the world this year, #India in particular, for celebrating #TaiwanNationalDay. With your support, #Taiwan will definitely be more resilient in meeting challenges, especially those “Get Lost” types,” read a signed tweet from foreign minister Jaushieh Joseph Wu.
On Friday evening, a day ahead of the 109th Taiwan National Day, large celebratory posters wishing Taiwan “Happy National Day” for 10th Oct. come up outside the Chinese Embassy complex in New Delhi.
The posters media reports said have been put up by Delhi BJP leader Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga who happens to be very outspoken on the issue of China and Taiwan.
The development came after the Chinese embassy in Indian capital issued an advisory for Indian media demanding them to ‘stick to Indian government’s stance on Taiwan’ and to downplay the Taiwan national day celebrations on 10 Oct. on Thursday.
Though the posters were taken down on Saturday morning after complains from the Chinese embassy, India’s Ministry of External Affairs has however dismissed China’s instructions as it declared that “free” Indian media would report “as it sees fit”.
Infuriated by the development, a commentary on the Chinese state-run Global Times has warned India that that “posters hung outside the embassy will “only exasperate already soured China-India ties.”
China has also called on “India’s ruling party to give up its irrational behaviour and to realize it is playing with fire”.
