President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday made a transit stop in San Francisco en route to Nicaragua, the first in the continental US since the controversy over the National Unification Council (NUC) ended.
The last time Chen stopped in the continental US was in September 2005 when he transited in Miami en route to Central America and in San Francisco on the way back. He did not leave the San Francisco airport, however.
This time, Chen stayed in San Francisco overnight, but maintained a low profile during the 16-hour stay out of respect for his hosts.
When asked how he felt about being on US territory again, Chen told the press corps on the plane that he felt great.
Minister of Foreign Affairs James Huang (
This was because Chen had never been there before in his capacity as the president, Huang said.
US-Taiwan relations took a turn for the worse last February when Chen announced his intention to mothball the NUC and National Unification Guidelines.
Barring Chen from high-profile transits in New York or San Fran-cisco, the US government offered Alaska or Hawaii for stopvers on his way to Latin America last May.
Chen, however, rebuffed the offer and stopped in Abu Dhabi and Amsterdam on his way to Latin America, and in the Dominican Republic and Libya on the way home, triggering criticism from the opposition that he had jeopardized Taiwan-US ties.
Chen and his entourage arrived in San Francisco at 2pm (local time) on Monday for an overnight stay before heading to Nicaragua, where he will attend the inauguration of Nicaraguan president-elect Daniel Ortega today.
Taiwan's Representative to Washington David Lee (
After his motorcade arrived at his hotel, Chen walked into the street to wave to supporters who chanted "A-bian, jiayou [an expression of encouragement]" and "Taiwan, go, go, go!"
A group of some 30 protesters was also seen, holding placards reading "Shame on you, Chen Shui-bian" and "Depose." They engaged in a shouting match with the other group by chanting "A-bian (Chen's nickname) must go."
Chen did not take questions from reporters.
also see story:
Editorial: Better to stand up than await death
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,