Concluding his Central American trip, President Chen Shui-bian (
Ahead of Chen's transit in Se-attle, the Seattle Times on Aug. 31 published an editorial entitled Welcome to Seattle, President Chen.
PHOTO: LIU HSIN-TEH, TAIPEI TIMES
Aside from extending a welcome to Chen, the editorial also expressed views on Taiwan's situation in the global community.
"To placate China, Taiwan's government is unrecognized in such entities as the World Health Organization and the United Nations," the editorial said.
"All of this is faintly ridiculous. Taiwan in an independent country of 22.5 million people. It ought to be in the United Nations because it is part of the humanity and its voice should be heard. It ought to be in the World Health Organization, so that if it is hit by SARS, or something even worse, it can be part of the international response team."
Subsequently, the competing Seattle Post-Intelligencer on Friday published an editorial that commended the good will extended to China by Chen in his recent announcement to cancel Taiwan's annual live-fire military drill.
Chen on Monday announced decision to call off the nation's annual Han Kuang military drill in the wake of media reports that China had apparently cancelled its military exercise on Dongshan Island after withdrawing some 3,000 troops.
"China and Taiwan seem to be turning down the heat. That's smart on both their parts," said the editorial. "With reasonable leadership on both sides of the strait, Taiwan can remain secure."
"The political skills President Chen has demonstrated at home could be a strong asset if consistently applied to rebuilding a calmer relationship with China," said the editorial.
Arriving in Seattle after a six-hour flight from Belize, the president and his entourage were welcomed by local Taiwanese expatriates and a number of political figures, including the acting chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan, William Brown; Democratic representative Adam Smith; former Washington governor Mike Lowry, Seattle City Council president Jan Drago and Taiwan's representative to the US, David Lee (李大維).
Washington Governor Gary Locke was attending his daughter's wedding.
When Chen's motorcade arrived at the Westin Hotel, where he was to stay, scores of protesters near the hotel waved Chinese flags and held up signs reading "One China" and "Against Taiwan independence."
Across the street a group of Chen's supporters fervently waved Taiwan flags, while some others waved the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) flags to express their warm welcome for Chen and his entourage.
Meanwhile, the State Department said Friday that US Secretary of State Colin Powell briefly met his Taiwan counterpart, Mark Chen (
"There was, I think, a pass-by encounter of some sort with the foreign minister as they were going out of the hall," department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters. "There was no exchange of any sort."
"I think there were greetings that were acknowledged," he said, adding that the Wednesday encounter was "not significant."
"The exchange was brief, however, because Powell was busy, as there were other dignitaries from other countries surrounding him," Mark Chen told a Taipei Times reporter.
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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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