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.
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
‘COMING MENACINGLY’: The CDC advised wearing a mask when visiting hospitals or long-term care centers, on public transportation and in crowded indoor venues Hospital visits for COVID-19 last week increased by 113 percent to 41,402, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, as it encouraged people to wear a mask in three public settings to prevent infection. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said weekly hospital visits for COVID-19 have been increasing for seven consecutive weeks, and 102 severe COVID-19 cases and 19 deaths were confirmed last week, both the highest weekly numbers this year. CDC physician Lee Tsung-han (李宗翰) said the youngest person hospitalized due to the disease this year was reported last week, a one-month-old baby, who does not
RSS