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US Senate majority leader Bill Frist to visit Taiwan
HIGH-LEVEL:
Frist will be the first Senate majority leader to visit the nation since Bob Dole back in the mid-1980s
By Monique Chu
STAFF REPORTER
Thursday, Apr 10, 2003, Page 1
US Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is slated to lead a delegation to travel to Asia tomorrow which includes Taipei as one of the stops.
The visit will be the first time in decades that Taiwan has received such a high-level US congressional leader.
The outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), however, has added uncertainty to the delegation's visit, sources said.
"Right now, everything is still on schedule," said an assistant to Senator Susan Collins, a member of the delegation, by phone on Tuesday afternoon in Washington.
"They are undecided about China," the source added.
The delegation, which includes Frist and seven other senators along with their families and staffers, is scheduled to take a US Air Force jet to Beijing and Shanghai today, before visiting South Korea, Taiwan and Japan, sources in Taipei and Washington said.
The delegation is scheduled to reach Taipei on April 18 for a whirlwind 24-hour visit.
The senators are slated to meet with high-ranking officials including President Chen Shui-bian (³¯¤ô«ó), government sources said.
The trip, if completed, will mark the first time since 1985 a US Senate majority leader has visited Taiwan.
Then Senate majority leader Bob Dole visited Taipei in 1985 after the veteran Republican figure was elected to his post in the Senate in November of the previous year.
Officials Frist's planned visit to Taipei should mark a significant milestone in Taipei-Washington relations.
"Despite the longstanding friendship between Taiwan and the US Congress, it's rare for us to see the visit of such a high-level US congressional leader in Taipei," said a Presidential Office official who declined to be named.
"The visit symbolizes the US emphasis on its relations with Taiwan, especially at a time when the US itself is busy with the war against Iraq, not to mention the threat from SARS," the official said.
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), which government officials said is in charge of arranging the delegation's itinerary in Taipei, did not deny nor confirm the delegation's visit yesterday.
Judith Mudd-Krijgelmans, spokesperson for AIT's Taipei office, said she could not confirm the scheduled visit to Taipei by the US congressional delegation.
A former heart and lung transplant specialist, Frist is the only physician currently serving in the US Congress.
The Harvard-educated physician joined the Senate eight years ago, representing Tennessee.
He was recently elected to replace Trent Lott, who stepped down as majority leader last December after making some comments that were taken as supporting racism.
Other senators in the delegation include Susan Collins of Maine, who serves as the chairperson of the Senate's Government Affairs Committee and Don Nickles, who is the chairman of the Senate's Budget Committee.
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