President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) will leave for a three-day state visit to Palau and Nauru on Sept. 3, Presidential Office Deputy Secretary-General Liu Shih-fang (劉世芳) announced yesterday.
"The president will attend a summit meeting with the nation's six Pacific island allies in Palau and deliver a speech in Nauru's parliament," Liu said at a news conference held at the Presidential Office.
Local media had previously reported that Chen was likely to make a transit in Guam before returning to Taipei.
PHOTO: LO PEI-DER, TAIPEI TIMES
The report had been interpreted by some as an expression of the US' support for Chen, who is facing mounting pressure to step down from office over a string of corruption allegations involving his aides and family members.
Liu said that Chen is scheduled to return to Taiwan on Sept. 6.
stop over
"We will announce whether Chen will stop over in a third country next week," she said.
While there have been rumors in the local media that Chen will, for the first time, use the presidential jet, dubbed "Air Force One," with a military crew for the upcoming trip, Liu made no comment.
"Considering the size of the[small] runways [of the two countries], we will use two airplanes for this trip," Liu said, when asked by reporters about the flight details.
Liu said that President Chen's participation in the summit in Palau is to consolidate the nation's friendships with its South Pacific allies.
"Taiwan is a newly rising democratic country and has encountered some difficulties during its democratic transition. We wish to exchange views on the experiences of democratic development with our allies at the summit," Liu said.
eight areas
She added that the summit was intended to advance multilateral cooperation in eight areas including democracy, medical treatment, alternative energies, agriculture, fishing, e-government, economics, tourism and culture.
The president will sign a joint declaration with the six heads of state at the conclusion of the summit, Liu said.
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
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods