Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Chairman Joseph Wu (
"The US, overseas Taiwanese groups, and several think tanks want to understand the government's cross-strait policy. They therefore invited Wu to visit the US to explain the status of cross-strait policy since [the presidential inauguration on] May 20 and the direction of future policies," council Vice Chairman Chiu Tai-san (邱太三) told reporters.
It will be Wu's first overseas trip since he became the nation's top China policy planner in May.
Wu is scheduled to visit New York, Boston and Washington, arriving in New York tomorrow and at the US capital on Tuesday. However, MAC information and liaison officials said yesterday that Wu's itinerary had not been confirmed yet and was subject to change.
Local media reported yesterday that during his two-day Washington stay, Wu would be meeting with several US officials including Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly and Michael Green, the National Security Council's director of Asian affairs.
Wu's visit closely follows US National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice's visit to Beijing, and local reports yesterday speculated that Wu's visit would be an opportunity for Taiwanese officials to learn more about Rice's meetings with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), former Chinese president Jiang Zemin (江澤民) and Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing (李肇星).
"Because diplomatic relations between Taiwan and the US are good, government officials are able to visit the US to exchange ideas," Chiu said yesterday.
Wu will also visit Boston during his US visit. He is scheduled to deliver a speech on cross-strait relations at Harvard University on next Friday. Wu holds a political science doctorate from Ohio State University.
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:
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