An attempt to exchange diplomatic niceties has caused embarrassment for both Britain and Taiwan after Baroness Susan Kramer, the transport minister, presented the mayor of Taipei with a watch.
Unfortunately, giving a timepiece as a gift is a taboo in Chinese culture because it suggests that the recipient's time is running out. The phrase "giving a clock" in Chinese can also be read as bidding farewell to the deceased at a funeral.
Ko Wen-je, the outspoken mayor of the Taiwanese capital, told local media later on Monday that he was not worried about the gift as he was previously a doctor and has no fear of superstitions.
But the mayor then compounded the awkward exchange by saying he has "no use for it" and suggesting, "I can just re-gift it to someone else or take it to a scrap metal dealer and sell it for cash."
A spokesman for the city later attempted to gloss over the mayor's comments, insisting that he had just been joking.
Lin Ho-ming told the Central News Agency that the gift would be stored at the city repository and that the local government "could not possibly resell it".
Baroness Kramer, who is visiting Taiwan on a trade exchange, quickly apologised for her faux pas, saying she had learned something about giving gifts overseas.
"I'm sorry," she was quoted as saying by officials of the British Trade and Cultural Office in Taipei. "We learn something new each day.
"I had no idea a gift like this could be seen as anything other than positive," she added. "In the UK, a watch is precious - because nothing is more important than time."
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