Annette Lu(
At a press conference yesterday, Deputy Secretary-General of the Presidential Office Eugene Chien (簡又新) stressed that Lu was the first female winner of the prize.
Lester Wolff, former chairman of the US House Asian Affairs Committee, is the chief judge of the awarding council. Wolff said that a seven-member delegation, including Han Min-su, the council's founder, will fly to Taipei and present the award to Lu on Dec. 9.
Wolff said the council decided to bestow this year's award on Lu to honor her efforts to promote Taiwan's democracy, peace and the women's rights movement.
There was no political meaning behind the council's decision, Wolff said.
Wolff added that he felt it was a shame the US government refused to allow Lu to come to Washington to collect the award.
Chien detailed what he saw as major efforts Lu has made since May of last year, when she became the first female vice president of Taiwan, to help promote world peace.
For instance, Lu has initiated humanitarian aid to Tibet and India to help deprived people in remote areas. She also invited five Nobel Peace Prize winners to Taipei in August for a world peace forum.
In the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks in the US and the subsequent US-led war in Afghanistan, Lu has also urged the citizens of Taiwan to donate money to help Afghan refugees, Chien said.
Lu said she received the prize on behalf of the 23 million people of Taiwan, because without their cooperation she could not possibly have completed these humanitarian tasks.
The award council was jointly established by Han Min-su, a South Korean minister, and senior US Representative Robert Leggett as part of the mechanism under the World Peace Corps Mission.
Previous award winners include former US president Ronald Reagan, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, late Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, the first president of South Korea, Rhee Syngman, and Taufa Ahau of Tonga.
Chen Chien-jen (
Chen said Lu was a brave woman who promoted human rights and democracy wholeheartedly.
TPP RALLY: The clashes occurred near the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall on Saturday at a rally to mark the anniversary of a raid on former TPP chairman Ko Wen-je People who clashed with police at a Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) rally in Taipei on Saturday would be referred to prosecutors for investigation, said the Ministry of the Interior, which oversees the National Police Agency. Taipei police had collected evidence of obstruction of public officials and coercion by “disorderly” demonstrators, as well as contraventions of the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法), the ministry said in a statement on Sunday. It added that amid the “severe pushing and jostling” by some demonstrators, eight police officers were injured, including one who was sent to hospital after losing consciousness, allegedly due to heat stroke. The Taipei
NO LIVERPOOL TRIP: Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who won a gold medal in the boxing at the Paris Olympics, was embroiled in controversy about her gender at that event Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) will not attend this year’s World Boxing Championships in Liverpool, England, due to a lack of response regarding her sex tests from the organizer, World Boxing. The national boxing association on Monday said that it had submitted all required tests to World Boxing, but had not received a response as of Monday, the departure day for the championships. It said the decision for Lin to skip the championships was made to protect its athletes, ensuring they would not travel to the UK without a guarantee of participation. Lin, who won a gold medal in the women’s 57kg boxing
‘NOT ALONE’: A Taiwan Strait war would disrupt global trade routes, and could spark a worldwide crisis, so a powerful US presence is needed as a deterrence, a US senator said US Senator Deb Fischer on Thursday urged her colleagues in the US Congress to deepen Washington’s cooperation with Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific partners to contain the global security threat from China. Fischer and other lawmakers recently returned from an official trip to the Indo-Pacific region, where they toured US military bases in Hawaii and Guam, and visited leaders, including President William Lai (賴清德). The trip underscored the reality that the world is undergoing turmoil, and maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region is crucial to the security interests of the US and its partners, she said. Her visit to Taiwan demonstrated ways the
RESPONSE: The transit sends a message that China’s alignment with other countries would not deter the West from defending freedom of navigation, an academic said Canadian frigate the Ville de Quebec and Australian guided-missile destroyer the Brisbane transited the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning, the first time the two nations have conducted a joint freedom of navigation operation. The Canadian and Australian militaries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm the passage, saying only that Taiwan’s armed forces had deployed surveillance and reconnaissance assets, along with warships and combat aircraft, to safeguard security across the Strait. The two vessels were observed transiting northward along the eastern side of the Taiwan Strait’s median line, with Japan being their most likely destination,
RSS