Citing military threats, Taiwanese museum says no China cooperation planned

7/5/2025 17:49

Taiwan's National Palace Museum, home to one of the world's biggest collections of imperial Chinese treasures, does not plan any joint events with China for its 100th anniversary due to Beijing's military threats, its director said on Wednesday.



The museum was re-established in Taiwan in 1965 after the Republic of China government lost a civil war with Mao Zedong's communists and fled to the island in 1949, taking with them thousands of cases of antiques once owned by China's emperors.



A competing institution remains in Beijing, the similarly named Palace Museum.



Speaking to reporters at the museum in the Taipei foothills, National Palace Museum Director Hsiao Tsung-huang said cooperation with Beijing's museum needed both sides to be willing to work together.



"Whether it's fighter jets, navy or civilian ships going up and down the Taiwan Strait, there is no opportunity like there was before for mutual friendliness or cooperation," he said, referring to China's almost daily military activities around Taiwan.



"We'd be happy to see it, but at the moment the other side hasn't taken the initiative to talk, and we even more cannot take the initiative to talk to them," Hsiao added.