US Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs Marie Royce yesterday arrived in Taiwan for a four-day visit that includes tomorrow’s dedication ceremony for the American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT) new complex in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
It is Royce’s first visit to Taiwan since she took up her post in March, although she has accompanied her husband, US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, on several trips, the ministry said.
She is quite familiar with Taiwan and she and her husband have been long-standing, important friends of Taiwan, the ministry added.
Photo: Bloomberg
Marie Royce is to visit government agencies during her visit to share views on issues including Taiwan-US relations, educational and cultural exchanges and building a good environment for start-ups, it said.
She is also scheduled to meet with alumni of US exchange programs, and engage with the local and foreign businesses community on entrepreneurship and the business climate, the AIT said in a statement yesterday.
In her job, she oversees a wide range of programs that advance US foreign policy objectives through educational, professional, cultural and sports exchanges, and that create networks and partnerships to advance US foreign policy goals and address global challenges and opportunities, the statement said.
Marie Royce has more than 30 years of experience in the private sector, it said.
She served as a vice president of Alcatel-Lucent; held management positions with Marriott International, Avendra, Choice Hotels International and Procter & Gamble Co; and taught at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.
US Representative Gregg Harper, a co-chair of the Congressional Taiwan Caucus, also arrived yesterday to attend tomorrow’s dedication ceremony, at the head of a three-person delegation, the ministry said.
This is Harper’s first visit to Taipei since he took over the co-chairmanship in 2015, it said.
He is also scheduled to meet with high-ranking economic and political officials and attend a banquet hosted by Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), the ministry said.
Describing Harper as an important friend of Taiwan in the US Congress, the ministry said he has helped push pro-Taiwan proposals through the US Congress, including signing a petition to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to ask that Taiwan be allowed to participate as an observer in this year’s World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland.
He voted for the US’ Taiwan Travel Act, which encourages visits between government officials of the US and Taiwan, and met with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) when she transited through Miami en route to Panama on her first overseas trip as president in June 2016.
‘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