President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday mistakenly said he would visit Costa Rica during his trip to Central American allies planned for next week.
Taiwan severed diplomatic ties with Costa Rica in June 2007 after the Central American nation switched recognition to China.
Ma said he was going to Honduras to attend the inauguration of president-elect Porfirio Lobo Sosa and that he also planned to “go to Costa Rica to see the ambassador and consul [to Haiti] who are hospitalized and have suffered serious injuries” during last week’s earthquake that devastated the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.
Ambassador to Haiti Hsu Mien-sheng (徐勉生) suffered a fracture to his left leg during the temblor, while Consul Chi Wang-teh (齊王德) sustained head injuries, facial lacerations, a broken rib and some chest and back injuries.
Hsu and Chi are currently hospitalized in the Dominican Republic’s capital, Santo Domingo.
They were sent there to receive medical attention after being dug out of the debris.
The pair were trapped for six hours before a rescue team discovered them.
Ma said he would consider whether his visit could result in inconvenience and that he would cancel the plan if there were signs that it could.
“The most important thing is for us to send our love and resources [to Haiti],” he said.
Ma made the remarks while meeting winners of this year’s model firefighters and volunteer firefighters at the Presidential Office yesterday morning.
Ma will visit Honduras from next Monday through Jan. 30 and is weighing the possibility of 赳isiting the Dominican Republic to express the nation’s support for quake victims.
Ma is scheduled to make a one-night stopover in San Francisco before heading to the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa, and is expected to make a short stopover in Los Angeles on the way back to Taiwan.
Ma yesterday made yet another slip-up when he misidentified the leader of the country’s rescue team, Lin Chien-chih (林謙志), as Lin Chin-chih (林勤志).
Ma said that he was happy to have had a chance to talk with Lin on the telephone on Sunday night and that Lin told him the team had rescued a 35-year-old French UN worker.
Ma said he told Lin to stay safe, adding that “we are not afraid to risk our necks, but it will cause more trouble if accidents happen because we neglected to ensure our personal safety.”
Meanwhile, Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said yesterday that Ma would be happy to meet US parliamentarians and local politicians during his stopovers in the US.
Wang said Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) conveyed a request by lawmakers that as fewer US senators were visiting Taiwan, they hoped Ma could invite more US parliamentarians during his stopovers in the US.
Senior officials attending yesterday’s weekly lunch hosted by Ma at the Presidential Office also said that they hoped Ma would take advantage of his transits in the US to mend fences with Washington after the US beef controversy.
FIREPOWER: On top of the torpedoes, the military would procure Kestrel II anti-tank weapons systems to replace aging license-produced M72 LAW launchers Taiwan is to receive US-made Mark 48 torpedoes and training simulators over the next three years, following delays that hampered the navy’s operational readiness, the Ministry of National Defense’s latest budget proposal showed. The navy next year would acquire four training simulator systems for the torpedoes and take receipt of 14 torpedoes in 2027 and 10 torpedoes in 2028, the ministry said in its budget for the next fiscal year. The torpedoes would almost certainly be utilized in the navy’s two upgraded Chien Lung-class submarines and the indigenously developed Hai Kun, should the attack sub successfully reach operational status. US President Donald Trump
TPP RALLY: The clashes occurred near the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall on Saturday at a rally to mark the anniversary of a raid on former TPP chairman Ko Wen-je People who clashed with police at a Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) rally in Taipei on Saturday would be referred to prosecutors for investigation, said the Ministry of the Interior, which oversees the National Police Agency. Taipei police had collected evidence of obstruction of public officials and coercion by “disorderly” demonstrators, as well as contraventions of the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法), the ministry said in a statement on Sunday. It added that amid the “severe pushing and jostling” by some demonstrators, eight police officers were injured, including one who was sent to hospital after losing consciousness, allegedly due to heat stroke. The Taipei
NO LIVERPOOL TRIP: Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who won a gold medal in the boxing at the Paris Olympics, was embroiled in controversy about her gender at that event Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) will not attend this year’s World Boxing Championships in Liverpool, England, due to a lack of response regarding her sex tests from the organizer, World Boxing. The national boxing association on Monday said that it had submitted all required tests to World Boxing, but had not received a response as of Monday, the departure day for the championships. It said the decision for Lin to skip the championships was made to protect its athletes, ensuring they would not travel to the UK without a guarantee of participation. Lin, who won a gold medal in the women’s 57kg boxing
The US has revoked Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) authorization to freely ship essential gear to its main Chinese chipmaking base, potentially curtailing its production capabilities at that older-generation facility. American officials recently informed TSMC of their decision to end the Taiwanese chipmaker’s so-called validated end user (VEU) status for its Nanjing site. The action mirrors steps the US took to revoke VEU designations for China facilities owned by Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc. The waivers are set to expire in about four months. “TSMC has received notification from the US Government that our VEU authorization for TSMC Nanjing
RSS