Although retired diplomat William Yui (
So when the 38-year-old Yui received the Outstanding Diplomat Award yesterday, the first such prize presented by the Executive Yuan, together with 10 other winners from various government units, his smile betrayed his emotions.
The awards ceremony was held at the Executive Yuan yesterday morning and followed by a similar event at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the afternoon.
PHOTO: LIAO CHENG-HUI, TAIPEI TIMES
The older Yui has encouraged his son, now a section chief at the ministry in charge of Central American affairs, to work on the diplomatic front line, where he sees relations between Taipei and Beijing as the real battlefield.
Other award winners agreed that the action lies in handling relations with China.
"Beijing's obstruction has been the top stumbling block to the enhancement of ties between Taipei and Washington," said Harry Tseng (
Tseng said he and his coworkers at Taiwan's de facto embassy in Washington had to "fight in close quarters" with their counterparts from Beijing when stationed in the US.
Tseng, now one of the president's English-Chinese interpreters, joined the ministry in 1985 and left his work four years later to pursue a PhD at the University of Virginia. In 1993, Tseng was encouraged by his superior, David Lee (李大維), now Taiwan's top representative to Brussels, to return to the ministry.
After the ceremony at the ministry, the veteran diplomat Lee grasped Tseng by the shoulders as a gesture of encouragement.
At the ceremony, Minister of Foreign Affairs Eugene Chien (
The 11 recipients were handpicked by an 11-member committee out of 24 short-listed civil servants from 18 government units which have dispatched personnel overseas, Chien said.
On behalf of the award winners, Lee, who was honored for his work in enhancing ties between Taiwan and the EU, expressed his gratitude for the recipients' colleagues, their spouses and their supervisors.
"Many colleagues have worked harder than us. We were just luckier," Tseng said.
Lin Sheng-chung (
"The credit shouldn't be taken by any single individual for Taiwan's WTO accession as countless civil servants were involved in the decades-long preparations and negotiations," Lin said.
Other award winners included Pascal Liu (
The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a southwestern extension of the Sanying MRT Line from New Taipei to Bade District (八德) in Taoyuan, with a goal of starting construction by late 2026. The 4.03-kilometer extension, featuring three new stations, will run from the current terminus at Yingtao Fude Station (LB12) in New Taipei City to Dannan Station (LB14), where it will connect with Taoyuan’s Green Line, New Taipei City Metro Corp said in a statement. This extension will follow the completion of core Sanying Line, a 14.29-kilometer medium-capacity system linking Tucheng (土城), Sansia (三峽)
CARGO LOSS: About 50 containers at the stern of the ‘Ever Lunar’ cargo ship went overboard, prompting the temporary closure of the port and disrupting operations Evergreen Marine Corp, Taiwan’s largest container shipper, yesterday said that all crew members aboard the Ever Lunar (長月) were safe after dozens of containers fell overboard off the coast of Peru the previous day. The incident occurred at 9:40am on Friday as the Ever Lunar was anchored and waiting to enter the Port of Callao when it suddenly experienced severe rolling, Evergreen said in a statement. The rolling, which caused the containers to fall, might have been caused by factors including a tsunami triggered by an earthquake in Russia, poor winter sea conditions in South America or a sudden influx of waves,
The Ministry of Culture yesterday officially launched the “We TAIWAN” cultural program on Osaka’s Nakanoshima sandbank, with the program’s mascot receiving overwhelming popularity. The cultural program, which runs from Aug. 2 to 20, was designed to partner with and capitalize on the 2025 World Expo that is being held in Osaka, Japan, from April 13 to Oct. 13, the ministry said. On the first day of the cultural program, its mascot, a green creature named “a-We,” proved to be extremely popular, as its merch was immediately in high demand. Long lines formed yesterday for the opening
BE CAREFUL: The virus rarely causes severe illness or death, but newborns, older people and those with medical conditions are at risk of more severe illness As more than 7,000 cases of chikungunya fever have been reported in China’s Guangdong Province this year, including 2,892 new cases last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday said it is monitoring the situation and considering raising the travel notice level, which might be announced today. The CDC issued a level 1 travel notice, or “watch,” for Guangdong Province on July 22, citing an outbreak in Foshan, a manufacturing hub in the south of the province, that was reported early last month. Between July 27 and Saturday, the province reported 2,892 new cases of chikungunya, reaching a total of 7,716