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Annette Lu pleased with red carpet treatment in US

Vice President Annette Lu, left, is welcomed by Chinese residents of Las Vegas yesterday. Lu will stay in Las Vegas for three days before continuing to El Salvador, where she will attend the country's presidential inauguration. PHOTO: CNA

Vice President Annette Lu, who arrived in Las Vegas on Friday on her way to El Salvador, was given the read carpet treatment, despite having tried to keep a low profile.

After landing in Los Angeles earlier in the day on a commercial flight to transfer to a Las Vegas-bound flight, the China Airlines plane carrying her and her entourage first taxied to an apron reserved for state dignities, where Lu alighted from the plane under the escort of William Brown, the acting chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan.

The plane then taxied to an apron for commercial flights to let the rest of the passengers disembark. Lu and her entourage were whisked away in a bus to a chartered plane bound for Las Vegas.

Lu was obviously pleased with the arrangement.

A member of her entourage said Washington's hospitality reflected the warming ties between Taipei and Washington, which have almost returned to their highest point before US President George W. Bush's meeting with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) in Washington last November.

In Las Vegas, Chen Chien-jen (程建人), head of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Washington, played host to a large reception for Lu, at which nearly 200 guests attended.

Noting that she is the first Taiwanese vice president to ever visit Las Vegas, Lu said at the reception that she would like to learn the city's recipe for becoming a world conference center and bring that information back to Taiwan.

Lu and her entourage will stay in Las Vegas for three days before flying on to El Salvador to attend the country's presidential inauguration on June 1.
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