Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), the nation's representative to the US, visited the construction site of the Pentagon Memorial in Washing-ton at the invitation of the US Department of Defense on Friday, an official from Taiwan's representative office said.
The memorial is designed to commemorate those who died in the terrorist attack on the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, said Tsai Chung-li (蔡仲禮), director-general of the Information Division of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US.
Tsai said that the Pentagon Memorial Fund had raised money for the construction of a memorial park dedicated to the victims. Construction on the outdoor memorial, which began in June last year, is scheduled to be completed next year. The park will include 184 benches, each engraved with one of the victims' names.
The defense department invited 50 guests, including mem-bers of the victims' families and sponsors of the construction project, to attend the memorial activity and to learn more about the construction's progress. Also invited were Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England and former chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers.
Tsai said Taiwan donated US$1 million to the construction project to express the condolences of the government and people to the families of the victims and to show support for the US fight against terrorism.
Taiwan's donation is listed along with the country's flag and official name, the Republic of China, on the memorial project's official Web site, Tsai said.
TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT: A US Air Force KC-135 tanker came less than 1,000 feet of an EVA plane and was warned off by a Taipei air traffic controller, a report said A US aerial refueling aircraft came very close to an EVA Airways jet in the airspace over southern Taiwan, a military aviation news Web site said. A report published by Alert 5 on Tuesday said that automatic dependent surveillance–broadcast (ADS-B) data captured by planfinder.net on Wednesday last week showed a US Air Force KC-135 tanker “coming less than 1,000 feet [305m] vertically with EVA Air flight BR225 as both aircraft crossed path south of Taiwan” that morning. The report included an audio recording of a female controller from the Taipei air traffic control center telling the unidentified aircraft that it was
A series of discussions on the legacy of martial law and authoritarianism are to be held at the Taipei International Book Exhibition this month, featuring findings and analysis by the Transitional Justice Commission. The commission and publisher Book Republic organized the series, entitled “Escaping the Nation’s Labyrinth of Memory: What Authoritarian Symbols and Records Can Tell Us,” to help people navigate narratives through textual analysis and comparisons with other nations. The four-day series is to begin on Thursday next week with a discussion between commission Chairwoman Yang Tsui (楊翠), Polish-language translator Lin Wei-yun (林蔚昀), and Polish author and artist Pawel Gorecki comparing
MOVING OUT: A former professor said that rent and early education costs in Taipei are the nation’s highest, which makes it difficult for young people to start families The population of Taipei last year fell to the lowest in 23 years due to high rent, more transportation options and the expansion of northern cities into a single metropolis, academics and city officials said on Monday. Data released this month by the Ministry of the Interior showed that the capital was home to 2,602,418 people last year, down 42,623 from 2019. The decline is second only to 1993, when the population fell by 42,828 people, while Taipei’s population was the lowest it has been since 1997. Taipei saw the biggest drop among the six special municipalities, while Taoyuan led the group in
A legislator yesterday called for authorities to investigate the sale of Chinese-made, Internet-connected karaoke machines containing “propaganda songs.” Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) said she was approached by a person who had discovered Chinese patriotic songs such as My Motherland (我的祖國) — which is commonly referred to as China’s “second national anthem” — in Chinese-made karaoke devices sold in Taiwan. The machines are popular, as they can connect to the Internet, providing access to thousands of songs, she said. One retailer, who asked to remain anonymous, said that the machines first entered the local market about three years ago, starting with
RSS