Premier Yu Shyi-kun met with two US congressmen Friday on the second day of his transit stop in Los Angeles en route to the Caribbean nation of the Domini-can Republic for an official visit.
Yu first met with Representative David Dreier, who serves as chairman of the House Committee on Rules, for wide-ranging talks.
During the meeting, Dreier told Yu that he will help push for an early completion of Taiwan-US Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) talks and for re-opening the California trade office in Taiwan.
Drier later told reporters from Taiwan covering Yu's current diplomatic tour that the cross-strait standoff should be cooled down.
Drier further said he hopes that the spirit of rule by law, self-determination and political pluralism can evolve in China through ongoing global trade liberalization. Only when these three principles prevail around the world can a global security system be formulated, he added.
As to Taiwan's arms procurement plan, Drier said he is willing to help the country secure good prices for weapons it plans to buy from US contractors, which include eight conventional submarines, anti-missile batteries and anti-submarine aircraft. Nevertheless, he said security is always costly. Later on, Yu met with Representative Dana Rohrabacher, co-chair of the Congressional Taiwan Caucus, a pro-Taiwan group in the US Congress.
Rohrabacher presented a "Certificate of Congressional Recognition" to Premier Yu in recognition of his contributions to promoting Taiwan-US relations over the years.
During their talks, Rohrabacher said he is concerned about China's military threat to Taiwan and its control of religious activities. He said he looks forward to seeing changes in China through the promotion of human rights, respect for religion and protection of intellectual property rights.
Earlier in the day, Yu visited the late US President Ronald Reagan's grave in Simi Valley, California. He laid a wreath in front of the tomb to pay tribute to Reagan on behalf of the Taiwan government. Yu then toured the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library nearby. Yu's Friday itinerary also included visits to two high-tech firms -- Broadcom Technology Co and Linksys Technology Co -- in Orange County, as well as dinner with senior executives from high-tech companies in the southern California region.
During the dinner, Yu said President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) attached great importance to educational and technological development. Under Chen, budgets for education, cultural development and technological research have increased more than 10 percent annually, Yu said. Noting that the nation's annual spending on research and development is expected to reach 3 percent of its gross domestic product by 2006, Yu said Taiwan is capable of playing an important role in the global high-tech products supply chain.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
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The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift