Remarks by Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) about former president Yen Chia-kan's (嚴家淦) holding the vice presidency and the premiership simultaneously got Lu into hot water yesterday amid speculations of her political ambitions.
While speaking at a forum to commemorate Yen's 100th birthday, Lu professed to feeling envious of the fact that Yen had served as both premier and vice president.
"An appropriate amount of authority is helpful in transforming politics into governance," Lu said, pointing out that Yen had served six years as premier and that none of his successors as vice president had had the same privilege.
When asked by reporters to respond, President Chen Shui-bian (
"If I like Kinmen, does that mean that I can be both president and Kinmen County commissioner?" Chen asked.
The Presidnetial Office later said that Lu had intended only to relay a historical fact.
Yen, who was Chiang Kai-shek's (
Yen was born in 1903 and died in 1993.
The Presidential Office has organized several events to commemorate Yen's centenary, including a seminar, documentary film and an exhibition about Yen. The display, which opened last month, is scheduled to run until next month, showcases photos and documents on Yen as well as some of his personal belongings.
Lu said that although Yen was born in an unfortunate era, he had lived a fortunate life, having served in all top government posts. She also praised Yen as "a professional political talent."
Lu said that she hoped Yen would bless Taiwan and that everyone would be able to recover their emotional equilibrium when the clock strikes midnight on Dec. 11, the day of the legislative elections.
"Just like [Senator John] Kerry had said in his speech -- that the next morning we all wake up as Americans -- every one of us should wake up the next day [after the legislative elections] proud to be citizens of the Republic of China," she said.
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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