The US expects Taiwan to adopt a “transparent, fair and impartial” approach in the corruption proceedings against former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), American Institute in Taiwan Director Stephen Young said yesterday.
“We believe it needs to be transparent, fair and impartial,” Young said at his biannual media briefing in Taipei.
“Considering that it is conducted in that manner, it can then strengthen the confidence both here and around the world in your democracy,” he said.
“The only thing I would say is that not only Taiwan, but your friends around the world will be watching this process very closely,” Young said.
Young said he had confidence in Taiwan’s democracy, but urged for more dialogue between the government and the opposition.
He also said that Taiwan-US relations would remain “strong and enduring” under the leadership of US president-elect Barack Obama.
In related news, the foreign affairs spokesmen of the ruling and opposition parties in the Netherlands on Tuesday expressed concern to Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen during a session of the Dutch parliament about the spate of detentions in Taiwan.
Maarten Haverkamp of the ruling Christian Democrat Party and Hans van Baalen of the opposition People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy asked the foreign minister if he was aware that “Chen and a number of politicians of the DPP [Democratic Progressive Party] have been arrested on suspicion of abuse of power while in power.”
Their prepared list of questions also asked Verhagen whether he planned to brief parliament on events in Taiwan so that its members could gain a better understanding of the situation.
They also asked the foreign minister whether he was prepared to use all available channels to “urge the present administration led by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to apply the basic principles of the rule of law in a democracy when prosecuting those who on juridical grounds are suspected of abuse of their position while in power.”
CHAMPIONS: President Lai congratulated the players’ outstanding performance, cheering them for marking a new milestone in the nation’s baseball history Taiwan on Sunday won their first Little League Baseball World Series (LLBWS) title in 29 years, as Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School defeated a team from Las Vegas 7-0 in the championship game in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It was Taiwan’s first championship in the annual tournament since 1996, ending a nearly three-decade drought. “It has been a very long time ... and we finally made it,” Taiwan manager Lai Min-nan (賴敏男) said after the game. Lai said he last managed a Dong Yuan team in at the South Williamsport in 2015, when they were eliminated after four games. “There is
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers have declared they survived recall votes to remove them from office today, although official results are still pending as the vote counting continues. Although final tallies from the Central Election Commission (CEC) are still pending, preliminary results indicate that the recall campaigns against all seven KMT lawmakers have fallen short. As of 6:10 pm, Taichung Legislators Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) and Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔), Hsinchu County Legislator Lin Szu-ming (林思銘), Nantou County Legislator Ma Wen-chun (馬文君) and New Taipei City Legislator Lo Ming-tsai (羅明才) had all announced they
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) yesterday visited Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), as the chipmaker prepares for volume production of Nvidia’s next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) chips. It was Huang’s third trip to Taiwan this year, indicating that Nvidia’s supply chain is deeply connected to Taiwan. Its partners also include packager Siliconware Precision Industries Co (矽品精密) and server makers Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and Quanta Computer Inc (廣達). “My main purpose is to visit TSMC,” Huang said yesterday. “As you know, we have next-generation architecture called Rubin. Rubin is very advanced. We have now taped out six brand new
POWER PLANT POLL: The TPP said the number of ‘yes’ votes showed that the energy policy should be corrected, and the KMT said the result was a win for the people’s voice The government does not rule out advanced nuclear energy generation if it meets the government’s three prerequisites, President William Lai (賴清德) said last night after the number of votes in favor of restarting a nuclear power plant outnumbered the “no” votes in a referendum yesterday. The referendum failed to pass, despite getting more “yes” votes, as the Referendum Act (公民投票法) states that the vote would only pass if the votes in favor account for more than one-fourth of the total number of eligible voters and outnumber the opposing votes. Yesterday’s referendum question was: “Do you agree that the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant
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