The US-Taiwan Business Council has selected Senator Lisa Murkowski, the chairman of the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee's East Asia and Pacific affairs subcommittee, as its new honorary co-chairman.
Murkowski replaces Conrad Burns, who was defeated in his reelection bid last month.
Murkowski will take the Republican slot in the bipartisan honorary chairmanship slot. Senator Jay Rockefeller, the other honorary co-chair is a Democrat.
She will take over next month, when the 110th Congress convenes, the council said on Wednesday.
Murkowski, a firm supporter of Taiwan in Congress, is the daughter of former Alaskan governor Frank Murkowski, who has been very close to Taiwan's interests. Her father appointed her to fill his seat in the Senate when he left Congress in 2002 to become governor.
Murkowski is one of the Senate's leading supporters of Taiwan, as was her father, who provided a warm welcome to Taiwanese leaders making transit stops in his state during trips to Latin America.
Lisa Murkowski is noted for asking Taiwan-related questions of officials testifying at the Foreign Relations Committee hearings to try to ensure that Taiwan's interests are taken into account.
A periodic visitor to Taiwan, Murkowski spoke with the Taipei Times during a visit last month, in which she defended the US administration's emphasis on getting Taipei to approve the purchase of a long-delayed arms package offered to Taiwan by President George W. Bush in April 2001.
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