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Chinese flower show to follow Taipei
flora exposition
By Ko Shu-ling
Staff Reporter, with CNA
Wednesday, Sep 15, 2010, Page 3
Falun Gong followers protest as members of a
500-strong delegation from China¡¦s Shaanxi Province leave a meeting in Taipei
yesterday to discuss a flower exhibition in Xian after the Taipei International
Flora Expo closes.
PHOTO:CNA
Taipei and the Chinese city of Xian launched a cooperative effort yesterday that
will see a horticultural exposition held in Xian three days after the Taipei
International Flora Expo concludes in April next year.
As a result of the joint effort and through exchanges between the two cities,
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (°qÀsÙy) said he hoped environmental protection would
take root and a win-win scenario would be created.
¡§To join heaven and man is an important concept of the thousands-year-old
history of the Chinese nation,¡¨ Hau said. ¡§To attach great importance to the
environment is to realize such a concept.¡¨
Xian Mayor Chen Baogen (³¯Ä_®Ú) said the joint effort bore significant meaning in
the cooperation and exchange between ¡§Shaanxi Province and Taiwan, and Xian and
Taipei.¡¨
Despite the warm words inside, the Chinese delegation were greeted by Falun Gong
practitioners on their way out of the hotel where the announcement was made.
Calling Shaanxi Vice Governor and acting Governor Zhao Zhengyong (»¯¥¿¥Ã) the ¡§scum
of human rights,¡¨ the protesters said Zhao was not welcome in Taiwan because he
had ordered the killing of many Falun Gong members.
Strangely enough, the protesters were not stopped by city personnel or the
Chinese delegation, but rather by the bus driver transporting the Chinese
delegation.
They engaged in physical clashes when the driver tried to stop the protesters
from holding a banner that read ¡§Persecution of Falun Gong, Zhao Zhengyong, you
are charged with a criminal offense.¡¨
On Monday, Falun Gong members filed a complaint at the Taiwan High Court
Prosecutors' Office and they planned to sue Chinese Administration of Religious
Affairs Director Wang Zuoan (¤ý§@¦w) today.
The 500-member delegation, led by Zhao, is the largest and highest-ranking
delegation from the northwestern Chinese province to have visited Taiwan, and is
scheduled to attend various events at this year's Taiwan-Shaanxi Week, held
between yesterday and Sunday.
During a meeting with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Honorary Chairman Wu Po-hsiung
(§d§B¶¯), Zhao said his delegation ¡X the first Chinese group to visit Taiwan since
the cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework agreement (ECFA) took effect on
Sunday ¡X will do its best to help implement the trade pact.
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