First lady Wu Shu-chen (
Wu made the comment in Rome as she wrapped up her week-long trip to Germany and Italy with a tea party for Taiwanese journalists covering her travels.
PHOTO: CHU PEI-HSIUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
She said she had completed all her planned missions during the trip. She said that she had felt the passion of the German people, the courtesy of the Italian government and the high regard the Pope has for Taiwan.
Wu also said that she did not think that the Holy See would establish diplomatic ties with China anytime soon because Beijing still does not allow freedom of religion.
Wu said that European governments and the US maintain a "one China" policy but that it was a different story with the parliament or legislatures in those countries. She has given a speech to the US Congress on a previous trip and she visited the German parliament on this trip.
"The administration's policies would deem the country's welfare as its first priority, but the parliament would be more lax with that principle. As US congress members need the votes of Chinese-Americans, they are willing to interact with Taiwan," Wu said.
"As long as it is a guest invited by the parliament, the administration has no reason not to show respect and cooperate to greet a guest. So Taiwan should reinforce its diplomatic work by working on the parliaments in various countries," Wu said.
When asked about what concrete results were achieved during her delegation's trip, Wu said that she was proud to be able to promote Taiwan through the National Palace Museum exhibition in Berlin, which she described as a magnificent cultural exchange.
She said her trip could become the basis for future developments between Taiwan, Germany and Europe.
Wu said that media in Berlin, Rome and other places in Europe had given her visit good coverage, and the exhibition and the visit to the Pope were both completed satisfactorily, so she did not disappoint the president or the people of Taiwan.
But she also expressed regret for not being able to interact with important German officials.
"When it comes to the relationship between Taiwan and the Vatican City, we can see the Pope's high regard for Taiwan because he made an exception to receive us on a Sunday," she said. "Of course, Italy also showed a great deal of friendliness toward Taiwan, but diplomacy takes time and is not something to be hurried. As long as we continue to make efforts we will see progress."
Wu said that when she shook hands and chatted with Pope John Paul at his summer residence at Castel Gandolfo, she saw that he was not in good condition.
She noted that despite his ill health he still had to dress in heavy vestments despite the hot weather.
"Sitting in a wheelchair is not an easy job, but compared with the Pope, I am much freer," Wu said.
Several reporters pressed Wu to comment on the nation's judicial system, since in a letter she delivered to the Pope she had said that she was willing to forgive those involved in the 1985 incident that left her paralyzed. The reporters asked Wu if she wanted a new investigation into the case.
Wu said what was important was the reformation of the judicial system and improving the quality of its judges.
"Let bygones be bygones. I do not want to pursue the case any further," she said.
"These old unsolved cases happened long ago and there is a lack of evidence. Even if there had been some evidence, most of it has been destroyed," Wu said. "More importantly, we cannot take revenge on the past just because a new boss is in charge."
She attended a mass officiated by the pontiff on Sunday and she delivered a letter from President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to the Pope to congratulate him on the silver anniversary of his assumption of the papacy.
Wu spent yesterday sightseeing at the Vatican, including visits to St. Peter's Basilica and the Sistene Chapel. Wu boarded a China Airlines plane yesterday for the flight home. She is scheduled to arrive at CKS Airport at 10:50am today.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching