Fri da y, March 8 , 201 9 tion) as well as moderated by The- cent—including Taiwan —were rated Headline resa Fallon (CREAS) . The panel as “free,” 31 percent as “partly free” President Tsai meets Car- gave insights on how China operates and the remainder “not free.” dinal Fernando Filoni, globally and what the EU, US and With an aggregate score of 93, the Prefect of Vatican Con- others should do in response. same as last year, Taiwan ranked gregation for the Evange- second in Asia behind Japan. lization of Peoples Taiwan scored 37 out of 40 in polit i- On February 28, President Tsai cal rights based on its strong per- Ing-wen met with a delegation led by formances in the subcategories of Cardinal Fernando Filoni, Prefect of electoral process, political pluralism the Vatican's Congregation for the and participation as well as function- Evangelization of Peoples. President Martin Hala discussed China’s polit- ing of government . Tsai stated that Taiwan and the Vat- ical propaganda system which uses Taiwan scored 56 out of 60 for free- ican share the common values of political manipulation to infiltrate dom of expressions and belief, ass o- freedom, human rights, and benevo- Central E urope, exaggerating the ciation and organization rights, rule of lence. In the future, Taiwan will con- benefits of economic cooperation. law and personal autonomy and tinue to partner with the Holy See in Lai used several concrete examples individual rights. humanitarian and charitable work, on how sharp power is exerted by The report also highlighted areas of contributing even more to the world. Ch ina such as trying to influence concerns for Taiwan such as “not Ta iwan’s elections by disinformation free” Ch ina’s ongoing efforts to in- to u ndermine the Taiwanese gov- fluence po licymaking, the media and ernment’s credibility. the dem ocratic infrastructure and Hsiao concluded that China is wag- foreign m igrant workers’ vulnerability ing an id eological war and Chinese to exploit ation. leaders seek to impose their model of authoritarian capitalism on the world. Culture President Tsai noted that from the We need to support legitimate de- past to the present, Catholics have Over 13 million visitors mocracies such as Ta iwan. attend ed the 2019 Taiwan been an important force contributing to the common good in Taiwanese Lantern Festival society. One example is this year's The 2019 Taiwan Lantern Festival featur ed a number of impressive and National Eucharistic Congress held by the Catholic Church in Taiwan. extravagant circus shows, drama and President Tsai said that different music pe rformances as well as a light and firework show . religions coexist peacefully in Taiwan, a spirit of mutual respect that has One of the highlights was an aerial Additionally, a seminar “Why Taiwan been recognized by the Holy See. show fe aturing 300 drones illuminat- Ma tters” was organized at the Eu- ing the night sky with the image of a The Vatican and Taiwan have jointly ropean Parliament on 5 March. held a number of interfaith confer- giant bluefin t una which is the same Cross -party MEPs and participants ences. She also expressed hope that design as the cel ebration’s center- had fruitful discussions with Dr. Lai piece la ntern. Many visitors praised Cardinal Filoni's visit would help and Mr . Hsiao on Taiwan’s crucial promote further understanding be- the diverse colorful lantern creations role in r egional security and its im- tween Taiwan and the Vatican. displayed at different sites throughout plications for the prospect of Dapeng Bay, Pingtung County. EU -Taiwan relations. International The festival was visited by 13.39 Taiwanese experts high- Democracy million people during the period from February 15 to March 3 . The festival light the importance of Taiwan r ated as ‘free’ by Taiwan’s democracy was organized in an extraordinary Freedom House for 21 orderly fashion and there were no On March 6, the Centre for Russia years running reported incidents or accidents con- Europe Asia Studies (CREAS) and Taiwan is rated as “free” in the 2019 sidering the record-breaking number Global Taiwan Institute (GTI) put on a st Freedom in the World report, the 21 of visitors . panel event "Sharp Power: China's consecutive yea r for the country to growing influence in Europe, U.S. achieve this classification, in the and Asia", the first Brussels event to annual assessment produced by look specifically at this issue. U.S. -based non-governmental or- The expert panel consisted of Martin ganization Freedom House. Hala (Sinopsis), Russel Hsiao (GTI) Of the 209 countries and territories and I-Chung Lai (Prospect Founda- included in the report, 42 pe r- Editorial: Taipei Representative Office in the EU and Belgium Website: http://www.roc-taiwan.org/be_en/index.html E-mail: [email protected] Tel: +32(0)2/287.28.16 or +32(0)2/287.28.11 .