President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday conferred a medal on former National Security Council (NSC) secretary-general Su Chi (蘇起), who resigned last month amid calls for him to step down to take responsibility for a controversy over US beef imports.
Ma bestowed the Order of Propitious Clouds, First Class, on Su, praising him for his contribution to cross-strait relations, foreign affairs and national defense.
Su’s achievements included improving cross-strait relations, pushing cross-strait negotiations, advancing “flexible diplomacy,” reforming the military and securing arms packages from the US, Ma said.
PHOTO: CNA
Su said the honor signified recognition of his effort and that of his team. Su said he ventured into politics around 20 years ago and was glad to serve the country again when the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) returned to power in May 2008.
Taiwan was sick, Su said, and he believed the remedy prescribed by Ma and Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) was the only cure that would be effective.
“It is seriously ill because it has been sick for eight years,” he said. “It is sick in many areas. They include the economy, society, politics, foreign affairs, cross-strait relations and national defense.”
Fortunately, Su said, it is getting better under Ma’s leadership. The country is making progress domestically with different reform initiatives growing in a peaceful and stable environment, he said. Internationally, the country enjoyed more security, peace, international space, dignity and opportunities, Su said.
Su said he was glad to have the opportunity to participate in the country’s “treatment” and believed the “curative effect” would be clearer and better as time progresses.
He asked the public to be generous with public servants, especially when they do a good job, but said they also deserve criticism when they make mistakes.
Su resigned unexpectedly on Feb. 11, citing health and family matters. He declined to confirm whether he stepped down to take responsibility for the flap over beef imports.
The opposition had long urged Su to resign to shoulder responsibility for the fallout over a US beef protocol because he proposed signing it without obtaining public support.
The legislature passed an amendment to the Act Governing Food Sanitation (食品衛生管理法) on Jan. 5 that barred imports of specific beef products from countries with documented cases of mad cow disease in the past decade. The vote reversed the deal the Ma administration had signed with Washington in October.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS