President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) embarked on a 12-day trip to Africa last night, visiting three ally nations in the continent for the first time since taking office in 2008.
Ma will visit Burkina Faso, Gambia and Swaziland.
However, his scheduled visit to Sao Tome and Principe was canceled because the ally nation said Ma’s visit coincided with Sao Tomean President Manuel Pinto da Costa’s visit to Cuba, raising concerns about the stability of diplomatic ties between the two countries.
The African tour marks Ma’s sixth foreign trip since becoming president. The last time a Taiwanese head of state visited the continent was when former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) visited the four African allies in 2002.
The delegation includes adviser to the president Steve Chan (詹啟賢), Minister of Foreign Affairs Timothy Yang (楊進添) and Council of Labor Affairs Minister Jennifer Wang (王如玄).
Ma’s trip comes amid domestic disputes over a series of controversial policies, from US beef imports and avian flu to the tax system and the removal of a freeze on fuel price increases.
Saying that Taiwan, under Ma’s governance, has become a subsidiary of China, opposition lawmakers called into question the timing of the overseas trip, characterizing it as Ma’s attempt to escape various controversies, such as the issue of the “one country, two areas (一國兩區)” proposal by former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄), rising commodity prices and the planned relaxation of a ban on beef products containing ractopamine residue.
Presidential Office spokesman Fan Chiang Tai-chi (范姜泰基) -responded by saying the trip had been arranged some time ago, and that, as the nation’s leader, the president should take into consideration both domestic policy and diplomacy, adding that visiting African allies was part of efforts to deepen the nation’s diplomatic ties.
Consolidating diplomatic ties and expanding the nation’s international space did not conflict with handling national matters, he said.
The president trusts Premier Sean Chen (陳冲) to handle ongoing issues and to solve any -problems that arise, Fan Chiang added.
Ma visited Central and South America in 2009, and was originally scheduled to visit the four African allies in March last year, but the trip was postponed after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and mass protests in North Africa.
During the 12-day trip, Ma will visit hospitals, schools and factories that Taiwan has helped build and inspect cooperative projects in agriculture, medicine and education. He will also meet with Taiwanese businesspeople in the area.
Additional reporting by Tseng Wei-chen
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the