France: Chinese embassy staff disrupt Taiwan award ceremony in Paris

Chinese embassy staffers attempted to interrupt an award ceremony of an international tea competition in France when the organizer introduced Taiwan and displayed the Republic of China flag, a Taiwanese tea farmer said in an interview published today.

Hsieh Chung-lin (謝忠霖), chief executive of Juxin Tea Factory from Taichung's Lishan (梨山) area, on Dec. 2 attended the Teas of the World International Contest held at the Peruvian embassy in Paris.

Hsieh was awarded a special prize for his Huagang Snow Source Tea by the nonprofit Agency for the Valorization of Agricultural Products (AVPA).

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During the ceremony, two Chinese embassy staffers in attendance stood up and shouted “Taiwan is just a province of China” and “Taiwan is part of China,” video of the event showed.

The organizer ignored the disruption and continued the ceremony, while attendees booed the staffers and gave Hsieh a round of applause.

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AVPA is a non-governmental organization founded in 2005 that holds contests attracting more than 700 producers from around the world every year, according to its official Web site.

This year’s competitors included tea producers from the US, Japan and Sri Lanka.

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