Foreign Minister Joseph Wu puts the record straight and responds by emphasizing Taiwan’s sovereignty and president’s role in signing off on legislation

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/05/19
By: Yu-ning Hsu, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The Chinese state-owned newspaper People’s Daily has experienced significant pushback on Twitter for attempting to claim jurisdiction over Taiwan by bafflingly taking credit for the country’s new same-sex marriage legislation.

The newspaper wrote, “Local lawmakers in #Taiwan, China, have legalized same-sex marriage in a first for Asia, according to local media reports.” In the Friday (May 17) tweet there was a gif of three couples with different gender combinations, seemingly showing support for same-sex marriage.

“WRONG!” said the Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) on Twitter in response to the newspaper’s tweet. Wu added “the bill was passed by our national parliament [and] will be signed by the president soon.”

Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan voted on part of a bill that would allow gay couples to apply for marriage registration, making it the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex marriages. The accomplishment has been widely applauded as an historic improvement of human rights by international media outlets.    [FULL  STORY]