Despite political pressure and attempts from Beijing to bar first lady Wu Shu-jen (
"There is no question that the first lady is still serving as the head of Taiwan's paralympic delegation because she has been officially invited to the Games and was given a National Paralympic Committee card, which is the top-class official card," said James Huang (
PHOTO: SUNG CHIH-HSIUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Huang clarified an erroneous news report in the local media, according to which Wu would return to Taiwan immediately after allegedly being disallowed to attend the opening ceremony and has been deprived of the position as the Taiwan team's leader.
"The first lady will certainly be present at the opening ceremony on Friday, she represents the nation and she will be present at all public official activities," Huang said.
"However, as usual, we have suffered some setbacks while negotiating with the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and the Athens Organizational Committee," he said.
Huang did not directly accuse China of putting pressure on the committee to block Wu's participation, but merely said that, "you know where the dark force comes from."
"We have to continually negotiate with the IPC to solve problems. We sincerely hope that it can put aside political concerns to respect the spirit of the Paralympic Games," he said.
The first lady received an invitation from IPC President Philip Craven in November last year to lead the Taiwan team to the 2004 Paralympic Games.
Meanwhile, the Presidential Office issued a statement condemning China for sparing no effort to put pressure on Taiwan in the international community, saying that the government will cautiously cope with China's tricks and firmly defend the rights of Taiwan's athletes as well as the dignity of the nation.
"She [Wu] is eminently qualified to lead the team because she is disabled and also serves as honorary chairwoman of the Chinese-Taipei Paralympic Committee. She has devoted herself to the promotion of sports events for the disabled in Taiwan," the statement said.
Cho Jung-tai (
Wu and the delegation, including 25 athletes and some 30 journalists, arrived in Athens yesterday after a 13-hour flight. They enjoyed a high-profile reception from the government of Greece as well as a warm welcome from many overseas Taiwanese in Athens.
Huang denied that there was any political reason behind Wu being forced to cancel parts of her schedule yesterday, including meeting with Craven and visiting Taiwan's athletes.
"Deciding not to interfere with the athletes' training, and considering that Mr. Craven is very busy, the meeting has been rearranged," Huang said.
About 4,000 athletes from 145 countries will take part in the games, which are held in the same year and at the same venue as the summer Olympic Games.
NETWORK-MAPPING PROJECT: The database contains 170 detailed files of Taiwanese politicians and about 23 million records of household registration data in Taiwan China has developed a network-mapping project targeting political figures and parties in Taiwan to monitor public opinion during elections and to craft tailored influence campaigns aimed at dividing Taiwanese society, according to documents leaked by Chinese technology firm GoLaxy (中科天璣). The documents, collected by Taipei-based Doublethink Lab, showed a database was specifically created to gather detailed information on Taiwanese political figures, including their political affiliations, job histories, birthplaces, residences, education, religion and a brief biography about them. Several notable Taiwanese politicians are in the database, including President William Lai (賴清德), former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍),
RECOGNITION: Former Fijian prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry said that Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy serves as a stabilizing force in the Indo-Pacific region Taiwan can lead the unification of the Chinese people, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former Polish president Lech Walesa said in Taipei yesterday, adding that as the world order is changing, peaceful discussion would find good solutions, and that the use of force and coercion would always fail. Walesa made the remarks during his keynote address at a luncheon of the Yushan Forum in Taipei, titled “Indo-Pacific Partnership Prospects: Taiwan’s Values, Technology and Resilience,” organized by the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Walesa said that he had been at the forefront of a big peaceful revolution and “if
North Korea tested nuclear-capable rocket launchers, state media reported yesterday, a day after Seoul detected the launch of about 10 ballistic missiles. The test comes after South Korean and US forces launched their springtime military drills, due to run until Thursday. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Saturday oversaw the testing of the multiple rocket launcher system (MRLS), the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. The test involved 12 600mm-caliber ultra-precision multiple rocket launchers and two artillery companies, it said. Kim said the drill gave Pyongyang’s enemies, within the 420km striking range, a sense of “uneasiness” and “a deep understanding
North Korea yesterday fired about 10 ballistic missiles to the sea toward Japan, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, days after Pyongyang warned of “terrible consequences” over ongoing South Korea-US military drills. Pyongyang recently dashed hopes of a diplomatic thaw with Seoul, Washington’s security ally, describing its latest peace efforts as a “clumsy, deceptive farce.” Seoul’s military detected “around 10 ballistic missiles launched from the Sunan area in North Korea toward the East Sea [Sea of Japan] at around 1:20pm,” JCS said in a statement, referring to South Korea’s name for the body of water. The missiles
RSS