Former American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) directors David Laux, Nat Bellocchi and Richard Bush have accepted invitations to attend President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) inauguration ceremony on May 20, according to the Presidential Office.
Victor Chin (
Guests from the region number nearly 100. Chin declined to reveal the names of the members in the de facto US delegation, but said he believed the group would consist of high-ranking officials. Washington is expected to announce the names on the list soon.
Because the US Congress is in session, Chin said that congressmen needed to apply for leave if they wanted to participate in the inauguration.
Other American guests invited to the occasion include prominent think-tank researchers and political commentators, Chin said.
Chin said communication with the US over the content of the president's inauguration speech had been proceeding well.
"The US has appreciated Taiwan's sincerity in its communication," the official added, dismissing media reports that Washington was unhappy about drafts of Chen's speech.
Meanwhile, the Presidential Office confirmed that Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara will also be attending the ceremony. Liberal International, a world federation of liberal political parties, will also dispatch a delegation to the celebration.
Larry Wang (王豫元), director general of the ministry's Department of European Affairs, said earlier this week that although European delegations included members of some parliaments, no government officials were able to attend the inauguration ceremony.
Javior Hou (
So far, 15 heads of state have confirmed they will attend, the ministry said.
LATIN AMERICA
Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) plans to travel to El Salvador to attend the inauguration of president-elect Antonio Saca at the end of this month, but a departure date and details of her itinerary have not been finalized, Hou said.
Hou affirmed that Taiwan's relations with Panama remained solid even with the election of opposition presidential candidate Martin Torrijos.
He said that Taiwan's embassy in Panama maintained close and friendly relations with all political parties there. Before the election, Torrijos had on several occasions vowed to maintain ties.
After he was elected, Torrijos said Panama would only have trade relations with China, Hou said.
Taiwan's Caribbean ally, the Dominican Republic, will be holding a presidential election on May 16.
Current polls show the opposition candidate is leading the race. However, Hou predicted that no matter which candidate was elected, it was unlikely that ties would be affected.
Haiti, which has suffered recent instability, will send an official delegation to Chen's inauguration ceremony. Haiti's foreign minister will head the delegation, Hou said.
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
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