President Chen Shui-bian (
Presidential Office Secretary-General Yu Shyi-kun delivered invitations on behalf of Chen yesterday to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Su Tseng-chang (
Yu also delivered an invitation to People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (
PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
PFP Deputy Secretary-General Liao Chang-sung (
Yu yesterday declined to say when will he deliver the invitation to Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
Yu said that invitations were issued because Chen believes that expanding Taiwan's diplomatic space should be carried out collectively by all Taiwanese people.
Strengthening the nation's diplomatic ties with friendly countries has been a tough task, officials said.
The Presidential Office said Chen will leave next Tuesday on the trip to five diplomatic allies in Central America and the Caribbean.
A key mission of the trip is to attend the Fifth Summit of the Republic of China (ROC) and Central America, which is being held in Nicaragua.
Chen's other stops will be in Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and St. Kitts and Nevis.
Yu said the trip aims to strengthen friendship between Taiwan and its allies, send regards to overseas Taiwanese and raise Taiwan's international profile.
Yu said such trips are very important for Taiwan in the face of China's interference in its foreign affairs.
Chen will make transit stops in Miami, Florida, on his way to Central America and in San Francisco on the way back to Taipei.
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:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
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