In a speech evoking bodybuilding, civil rights icon Rosa Parks and the power of the individual, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger urged a university audience in China to emerge from the constraints of their political system and attain success in the global world.
"America is a nation that believes in the power of the individual and what the individual can accomplish -- no matter the color, no matter the religion, no matter the ethnic background of the individual," Schwarzenegger told 500 students at Beijing's Tsinghua University.
"Imagine what could be accomplished if the dreams of China's 1.3 billion individuals can be unleashed," he said.
His reference to Parks, whose refusal to give up a bus seat to a white man sparked the US civil rights movement, suggested that one person could change the practices of an unfair government.
"The small protest of a small woman who weighed less than 100 pounds [45kg] brought down a racist system," Schwarzenegger said of the civil rights icon who died last month. "The individual can make a difference."
Those comments and others offered oblique but clear references of the practices of China's authoritarian government and collective society -- something the Republican governor had not yet touched on in his three-city trade mission.
The students appeared largely unfazed by his message, questioning Schwarzenegger instead about the relationship of acting to politics and his definition of the California dream.
In the speech, Schwarzenegger acknowledged China's global economic emergence and praised its heavy investment in US Treasury bonds. But he also addressed the country's challenges, even touching on its neglect of disabled citizens.
He mentioned a California businessman and philanthropist, Ken Behring, who had helped liberate thousands of Chinese simply by giving them wheelchairs.
While his evolution from musclebound Austrian superstar to politics is well known around the world, Schwarzenegger spoke in unusually personal terms about his humble beginnings and the pain of dashed hopes.
He told students how he cried all night after his first bodybuilding tournament in the US, when he came in second to an American competitor.
He said that this experience motivated him to move to the US and begin his career.
"The bodybuilding gave me the confidence, the movies gave me the money and public service gave me a purpose larger than myself," he said.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary