The US sent warnings to the Taiwanese government against changing the status quo through recent comments by the US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia, James Kelly, and American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) deputy director David Keegan, Minister of Foreign Affairs Mark Chen (陳唐山) said yesterday.
Attending a legislative question-and-answer session for the first time since he took office two weeks ago, Chen was bombarded with questions from lawmakers.
Presidential Office Secretary-General Chiou I-jen (邱義仁) wrapped up his 36-hour visit to Washington and returned to Taipei yesterday. At the top of his agenda in Washington was explaining President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) constitutional reform plan.
Mark Chen said the US' concerns about the new constitution were caused by its insufficient understanding of the plan to overhaul the document.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has provided its overseas embassies and representative offices with documents of Chen Shui-bian's announcements concerning constitutional reform so that they could explain the plan to their host countries, Mark Chen said.
The contents of Chen Shui-bian's inauguration speech on May 20 and the candidate to succeed Chen Chien-jen (
Chiou's trip to the US was of a low profile and his agenda was kept confidential.
Mark Chen, answering a question from Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim (
The purpose of keeping Chiou's US visit secret was to build mutual trust between Taipei and Washington, Mark Chen said. Hsiao, however, questioned ministry officials' loyalty and said it is possible that some officials leaked information about Chiou's trip.
People First Party Legislator Sun Ta-chien (孫大千) said Chiou's secret trip to the US revealed that the Presidential Office's distrust of the ministry has alienated the ministry from the diplomatic decision-making process.
Mark Chen said he would soon discuss details of Chiou's trip in a meeting.
Mark Chen confirmed that the Presidential Office wanted Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to succeed Chen Chien-jen as the country's top representative in the US.
The minister dismissed media reports that Chiou, Hsiao, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Michael Kau (高英茂) and DPP Legislator Parris Chang (張旭成) were possible candidates for the position.
The Presidential Office has asked Tsai about her intention to take over the job. According to Mark Chen, Tsai is "the only candidate" Chen Shui-bian has in his mind for the post.
Tsai, known for her attachment to her family, is still on leave and has previously shown little interest in taking the post, which will send her far away from home.
DPP Legislator Chen Chung-hsin (
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