An agonizing foot ailment has forced 78-year-old retired ambassador Loh I-cheng (
And yesterday, one of his occasional memory lapses managed to make Loh, a man known for his punctuality, tardy. He was nearly an hour late for his own book-launching press conference.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
But despite his age, Loh remains lucid. His decades-long experience in the foreign service proved an asset during the past four years as he composed his memoirs -- which were formally released yesterday.
"The majority of the episodes revealed are fresh to outsiders," Loh said of his book, entitled Valiant but Fruitless Endeavors,the Memoirs of I-Cheng Loh (
The book compiled information from diaries that he kept since 1979 -- with added information collected from government files.
The book details his role on Taiwan's diplomatic frontline, a job that spanned the past four decades.
Loh said he wanted his book to serve as "a witness to history" instead of being seen as a product of "instant history."
The three major diplomatic events Loh witnessed enjoy in-depth coverage in the memoir. These three events are Taipei's loss of the "China seat" at the UN, the US' severance of diplomatic ties with Taiwan and South Africa's switching of recognition from Taipei to Beijing.
"These are not glorious experiences at all," said the retired journalist-turned-ambassador who was removed from his US post in 1979, after being blacklisted by the US government.
An editorial he contributed to The Wall Street Journal on Feb. 6, 1979 -- which is included in his 453-page book -- questioned the US move to force his removal.
"Now we learn of the removal of a Taiwanese diplomat, I Cheng-loh, because he wrote letters and columns outlining his government's position to US newspapers ... His real offense was in being too eloquent a spokesman for the State Department bureaucracy to tolerate," the editorial said.
The memoir also describes Loh's encounters during his early days -- such as his work as an interpreter-interrogator for the US during the Korean War, an experience that won him the Medal of Freedom from then US president Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1954.
Although Frederick Chien (錢復), the president of the Control Yuan, urged Loh in his preface to the book to reveal other telling stories behind his career as a diplomat, Loh had his reservations.
"I've brought about many big troubles in the past," Loh said, adding that he would decline to unravel these parts of the "black box" in fear of tarnishing Taiwan's national interest.
The candid diplomat also expressed his worries in regard to Taiwan's future.
"I've been deeply concerned with the question as to which path Taiwan should embark on as far as its future is concerned," said Loh, who finished his 41-year civil service career in 1997 and formally ended work in the government last year after serving two terms as Taipei's ambassador-at-large.
What worries Loh most is the increasing polarization within Taiwanese society, the confusion between US national interest and Taiwan's national interest by some in Taiwan -- and China's rising power in contrast with that of Taiwan.
"It's wrong to assume that the US will put our interests above their own national interests," Loh said.
Loh also noted what he termed "the three new no's" in the US policy toward China and Taiwan. They include: no support for Taiwanese independence as expressed by the pro-independence "pan green camp;" no backing for reunification as expressed by the pro-reunification "pan blue camp;" and no approval of the use of force against Taiwan when addressing China.
"Contemplating how Taiwan should move on under the US' `new three no's' is to me the most challenging and difficult task Taiwan has faced," Loh said.
While taking note of the diplomatic truce between Taipei and Beijing during the past two years or so, Loh urged the two rivals to continue the truce. "The two sides should indeed stop the tug-of-war in the race to snatch one or two diplomatic allies," he said.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by