The Presidential Office yesterday denied a media report that first lady Chow Mei-ching (周美青) had asked Hotel Okura Tokyo — where she stayed during her recent visit to the Japanese capital — to take down a Republic of China (ROC) national flag because she was not visiting as the first lady.
“Chow has never spoken to Hotel Okura Tokyo’s management about the [ROC] national flag, therefore it is not true that she asked the hotel to take down the flag, as reported by the media,” a Presidential Office official said. “It has been a tradition for Hotel Okura Tokyo to raise the flag of the country of an important guest on the day the guest arrives and on the day the guest departs as a show of respect. The hotel followed the same tradition when Chow stayed at the hotel.”
The office was responding to a report by the Chinese-language United Daily News on Tuesday that, out of respect for Chow as Taiwan’s first lady, Hotel Okura Tokyo raised the national flag outside the building upon her arrival on Monday, but the flag was taken down the next day at Chow’s request.
The newspaper said that Chow did so because she was not visiting as the first lady, but rather as the honorary president of the Vox Nativa Taiwan children’s choir and head of a National Palace Museum delegation visiting the Tokyo National Museum.
The newspaper praised Chow for having written a new page in Taiwan’s diplomatic history, saying her “low-key” approach — including requesting that the ROC flag not be flown by the hotel — showed she was cognizant of the sensitive nature of Taiwan-Japan relations in the face of enormous pressure from China.
‘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
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
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