Legislative Speaker Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) has departed for Washington to attend a memorial service for US Senator John McCain on behalf of the government, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
Su is to attend two events in Washington for the long-time friend and supporter of Taiwan, accompanied by Representative to the US Stanley Kao (高碩泰), the ministry said in a news release.
Su is to attend the lying-in-state ceremony at the US Capitol today and a national memorial service at the Washington National Cathedral tomorrow, the ministry said.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
He is scheduled to return to Taipei on Monday, it said.
Su traveled at the invitation of the organizers of the events, who are members of the US Congress, ministry spokesman Andrew Lee (李憲章) said.
“It is therefore befitting for the government to send Su to attend the memorial events and to say goodbye to a long-time friend of Taiwan on behalf of the government,” Lee said, adding that Su would convey President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) condolences to McCain’s family.
McCain passed away at age 81 on Saturday last week after a battle with brain cancer.
Tsai on Sunday expressed her deepest sympathy and condolences to the McCain family.
“I’ll remember John McCain as a friend & a fighter. He never backed down from his beliefs & forever strived for a more peaceful & prosperous world. On behalf of the people of Taiwan, thank you,” Tsai wrote on Twitter.
McCain was highly regarded by many in US politics and he shared a deep bond with Taiwan, endorsing many bills in Congress as concrete actions to support the nation and defend democracy around the world, Tsai said in a news release.
For the people of Taiwan, McCain’s death was “a great loss of an important friend of Taiwan” in the US, she said.
Additional reporting by staff writer
‘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
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
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