Taiwanese becomes first Asian female to graduate West Point

Hung Wan-ting, who became the first Asian woman to graduate from the US Military Academy at West Point Saturday local time, is congratulated by Andrew Hsia, director of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in New York, after the graduation parade which took place on Friday local time. PHOTO: CNA

Hung Wan-ting (洪琬婷), a second lieutenant with Taiwan's Chinese Military Academy, will become the first Taiwanese -- and Asian -- woman to graduate from the US Military Academy at West Point on Saturday after four years of training, said a Central News Agency (CNA) report yesterday.

A series of celebrating events have taken place on Thursday and Friday in the lead up to yesterday's graduation.

Of the approximately 1,000 graduates, 40 of those included foreign students coming from 27 countries and Hung was one of them.

father

Flying to the US especially to attend the occasion, Hung's father, Hung Fu-ming (洪福明), was quoted by the CNA report as expressing his joy over his daughter's graduation. Taiwan should learn from the way West Point stresses a mixture of military and civilian education, he said.

Andrew Hsia (夏立言), director of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in New York, also visited West Point on Friday to congratulate Hung on her graduation and praised her for promoting the nation.

The fact that Taiwan can send students to the US' highest military academy shows that military exchanges between Taiwan and the US are very close, Hsieh was quoted as saying in the report.

Hsia said he was certain that Hung would be able to apply her four year's of West Point training successfully to the nation's army upon her return to Taiwan.