In an interview with the international press in Athens, first lady Wu Shu-jen (
Expressing disapproval of the former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government's decision to call the nation "Chi-nese Taipei" at the Games, Wu said she would never have agreed to it if she had been in charge. The joint interview was attended by representatives from the BBC, AFP and La Libre Belgique, among others.
Wu said it is unreasonable that Taiwanese are not allowed to sing their national anthem and raise their national flag like other countries at the Games. Wu said she hoped the unfair regulation would one day be revoked to enable Taiwan athletes to sing their national anthem during the Games.
Dismissing suggestions that her holding a National Paralympic Committee (NPC) card was intended to provoke China, Wu said that her decision to lead the Taiwan Paralympic delegation was to fulfill a promise she made last October.
Wu referred to her words when meeting with the Taiwan delegation for the 2003 World Wheelchair Games last year, during which athletes expressed hope that she could head this delegation to this year's Paralympics. Wu agreed immediately, noting that her physical status should qualify her for the position.
Presidential Office Secre-tary-General Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday lauded Wu asf carrying out "best citizen diplomacy."
"Via interviews with international press, the first lady let Taiwan's voice be heard in the international arena and allowed the world to see Taiwan's remarkable achievements," Su said.
Wu attended the judo event yesterday to cheer for two players from Team Taiwan, Lee Ching-chung (
On Friday night, Wu attended the opening ceremony of the 2004 Athens Paralympic Games in her capacity as the head of the Taiwan delegation using her NPC card, the highest-level official pass for the event.
Wu, on the advice of accompanying staff and doctors, took a seat in the VIP zone during the opening ceremony instead of her original plan to lead the Team Taiwan in the parade around the arena. Wu was paralyzed from the waist down after being hit by a truck in an assassination attempt in 1985.
According to delegation spokesman James Huang (
"The first lady had a pleasant exchange with the vice president of the Republic of Iran. They exchanged views on the experience of promoting sports events for the physically-challenged," Huang said. He added that International Paralympic Committee (IPC) president Philip Craven of Sweden had wanted to introduce Sweden's queen to Wu, but the meeting did not happen because Wu had to enter the VIP zone.
Given that Deng Pufang (
While such interaction didn't take place Friday night, Huang said that a Chinese representative had seen Wu and a brief greeting took place.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
China has reserved offshore airspace over the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts that are usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Sunday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. The alerts, known as notice to air missions (NOTAMs), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert
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