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The top story from this past week involved a large protest which broke out in Hong Kong. On Tuesday, Hong Kong police arrested over 500 protesters who were calling for real democracy.
Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) called on Beijing to keep its promise to allow the people of Hong Kong to determine the timetable for universal suffrage.
A spokesperson for the MAC, which is Taiwan’s top China policymaker, said that Beijing and the Hong Kong government should tolerate different opinions and respond to the people.
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Also this past week, President Ma Ying-jeou concluded a visit to two allied nations in Latin America.
The main purpose of Ma's latest trip to Central America was to attend the inauguration of Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela on July 1. He also traveled to El Salvador, where he signed a joint communique with President Salvador Sanchez Ceren.
Ma was greeted by the chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), Raymond Burghardt, at the San Francisco airport on Thursday during a transit stop en route to Taiwan. He then attended a dinner later on Thursday evening with more than 400 Taiwanese expatriates in San Francisco. The president departed early on Friday for Taiwan, arriving home on Saturday.
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And finally this past week, the star exhibit of Taiwan’s National Palace Museum – the Jadeite Cabbage with Insects – has drawn a record number of visitors in Japan.
The piece was on display at the Tokyo National Museum, marking the first time it has ever been displayed overseas.
In the first ten days of the special exhibition, which opened about two weeks ago, some 100,000 visitors lined up for an average of three hours in order to see the little cabbage.
A spokesperson for Taiwan’s National Palace Museum, Chin Shih-hsien, said it was a new record for the Tokyo Museum, surpassing the previous one set by the Mona Lisa.