Taipei Times
Date: May 21, 2018
By: Chung Li-hua  /  Staff reporter

The nation would continue to abide by its cross-strait policy of maintaining the “status quo” even as Beijing exerts greater pressure by stealing away Taiwan’s allies and barring the nation from participating in this year’s World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva, Switzerland, an anonymous source said yesterday.

Over the first three months of the year, China constricted Taiwan’s international space in 10 incidents, adding to 49 such incidents last year, 18 in 2016 and 13 in 2015, Ministry of Foreign Affairs data showed.

China’s tactics include forcing Taiwanese diplomatic allies to switch their recognition from Taipei to Beijing; barring the nation from the WHA, the International Civil Aviation Organization, the Interpol and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change; unilaterally launching northbound flights on the M503 aviation route, which is close to the median line of the Taiwan Strait; and coercing other nations to deport Taiwanese fraud suspects to China for trial, the source said.

The Hakka Affairs Council was in February to attend a cultural exchange event in Mauritius, but the hotel canceled the event, citing pressure from the local Chinese embassy.    [FULL  STORY]