Taipei lodges ‘solemn’ protests after being pressured to leave international symposium

Today
Date: APRIL 20, 2016

TAIPEI — The Taiwanese government has lodged “solemn” protests against China, Belgium and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) after Taiwan was pressured to pull out of an international symposium on the steel industry this week in Brussels, part of an apparent hardening of Beijing’s attitude towards the island it claims as its own territory.

Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry asked the Mainland Affairs Council, the island’s representative office in Belgium and its diplomatic mission in France, where the OECD is based, to lodge protests respectively with the three entities, said a Taiwanese official yesterday.

“We find it unacceptable,” said Mr Michael Hsu, director general of the Foreign Ministry’s Department of International Organizations, at a press conference.

Mr Hsu said Taiwan has been taking part in the OECD Steel Committee meeting as an observer since 2005 and as a participant since 2013, so it should have been able to attend the committee meeting as scheduled.

In addition to the committee meeting, the OECD had also co-organised with Belgian authorities the High-Level Symposium on Excess Capacity and Structural Adjustment in the Steel Sector in Brussels on Monday.      [FULL  STORY]