On this day in 1902, The United States authorized the construction of the Panama Canal to ease trade shipping between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. An expansion to the canal was inaugurated this last weekend, attended by Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen.
On this day in 1919, the Republic of China refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles because it handed German interests in Shandong province to Japan.
On this day in 1996, the ROC exchanged economic and trade representative offices with the Republic of Belarus. Belarus became the second member of the Commonwealth of Independent States to establish such relations with the ROC. Russia was the first.