President Tsai Ing-wen recently responded to Pope Francis’s papal message for World Day of Peace 2018, supporting his call to embrace those fleeing from war and hunger, or forced by discrimination, persecution, poverty and environmental degradation to leave their homelands.
“The people of Taiwan feel deeply for these people, as their plight reflects our own history, a story of immigrants struggling through blood, sweat, toil and tears,” Tsai said in a letter to the pope. Countries around the world should view the phenomenon of global migration with confidence and see it not as a threat, but as an opportunity for peace, she added.
According to Tsai, the earliest inhabitants of Taiwan were Austronesians and the first wave of large-scale immigration began 300 years ago when people crossed the Taiwan Strait to escape desperate poverty. “Another large wave came in 1949, when some 2 million immigrants were compelled to flee mainland China and came to Taiwan,” she said.
“Taiwan is an immigrant society, so the blending of ethnic groups and ideological differences are inevitable. Yet we have made a difficult transition, and become a free and democratic society that is a model for the Chinese-speaking world.”
Tsai said the people of Taiwan enjoy freedom of expression and their religious liberty, personal safety and other basic human rights are safeguarded by way of the country’s democratic institutions. Based on this firm foundation, and in keeping with the pope’s call for a spirit of compassion toward refugees and migrants, Taiwan is home to some 600,000 blue-collar immigrants and 500,000 foreign spouses, most hailing from Southeast Asia, she added.
“We see them as an infusion of new strength and a force for cultural diversity, and have formulated our New Southbound Policy to build bridges that strengthen trade and cultural exchanges with Southeast Asian nations.”
A key plank in the government’s national development strategy, the policy seeks to enhance agricultural, business, cultural, education, tourism and trade ties between Taiwan and the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations member states, six South Asian countries, Australia and New Zealand.
According to Tsai, she admires the pope’s concern for refugees and visits with displaced people in Bangladesh, Greece, Jordan and Myanmar. Taiwan aids international refugees, providing long-term support through various means for displaced peoples in the Iraqi Kurdistan region, as well as Burmese camps in Thailand and Syrian camps in Jordan, she said.
“Ethnic pluralism and cultural integration have become advantages for social development,” Tsai said, adding that a strong and prosperous nation must be inclusive and embrace differences.
“I sincerely hope that your World Day of Peace message will increase awareness and lead to global action that relieves the misery of immigrants and refugees throughout the world.”
This year marks the 76th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the Republic of China (Taiwan) and Holy See, with the two sides continuing to cooperate in advancing human development on the basis of the guiding principles of the Catholic Church.
Highlights include the hosting of the World Congress of the Apostleship of the Sea last October in Kaohsiung City, southern Taiwan; the signing of a memorandum of understanding on strengthening cooperation in combating money laundering, terrorism financing and associated offenses in May the same year; and the visit of Vice President Chen Chien-jen and a delegation of senior ROC government officials to the Vatican for the canonization of Mother Theresa of Calcutta in September 2016. (JSM)
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