American Institute in Taiwan chairman Raymond Burghardt and Taiwan’s representative in Washington, Jason Yuan (袁健生), headed for Los Angeles on Monday to be on hand to welcome President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) on his first US transit en route to two of the nation’s diplomatic allies in Latin America.
The decision came after the US State Department confirmed Ma’s transit plans.
Ma was scheduled to land in Los Angeles yesterday evening and to stay overnight en route to Paraguay, where he is scheduled to attend the inauguration of president-elect Fernando Lugo.
After attending the inauguration of president-elect Leonel Fernandez in the Dominican Republic, Ma will stop overnight in San Francisco on Sunday night before departing for Taipei.
With regards to the transit stops, a US State Department official who could not be named because of US government rules regarding Taiwan said: “We understand that his activities will be private and unofficial with no media events, consistent with the purpose of the transit.”
“We approved his request for a transit based on long-standing policy practice, consistent with our unofficial relations with Taiwan, and in keeping with the criteria of safety, comfort, convenience and dignity of the traveler,” the official said.
Burghardt is expected to meet Ma both in Los Angeles and San Francisco, the official said.
Ma’s transits on the US mainland reflect an upgrading of the treatment former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) received in recent years, when his transits were relegated to short — and in Chen’s view “degrading” — stopovers in Alaska. In one of his trips to Latin American allies, Chen rejected the Alaska offer and flew through the Middle East and Africa, stopping in countries with no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
That trip was received with anger by the Bush administration, whose Asian policy experts viewed Chen as a “troublemaker.”
However, Ma was not allowed to transit through the preferred venues of New York or other east coast cities, an indication that the Bush administration is still unwilling to alienate China by giving too much leeway to the Taiwanese president.
Chen visited New York twice early in his term, once to receive a human rights award, and once on a trip that included a meeting with former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, a tour of the New York Stock Exchange and a river boat tour.
But as relations between Chen and Bush worsened, Chen’s transits faced increasing restrictions and humiliating treatment.
A fugitive in a suspected cosmetic surgery fraud case today returned to Taiwan from Canada, after being wanted for six years. Internet celebrity Su Chen-tuan (蘇陳端), known as Lady Nai Nai (貴婦奈奈), and her former boyfriend, plastic surgeon Paul Huang (黃博健), allegedly defrauded clients and friends of about NT$1 billion (US$30.66 million). Su was put on a wanted list in 2019 when she lived in Toronto, Canada, after failing to respond to subpoenas and arrest warrants from the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office. Su arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 5am today on an EVA Air flight accompanied by a
A 79-year-old woman died today after being struck by a train at a level crossing in Taoyuan, police said. The woman, identified by her surname Wang (王), crossed the tracks even though the barriers were down in Jhongli District’s (中壢) Neili (內壢) area, the Taoyuan Branch of the Railway Police Bureau said. Surveillance footage showed that the railway barriers were lowered when Wang entered the crossing, but why she ventured onto the track remains under investigation, the police said. Police said they received a report of an incident at 6:41am involving local train No. 2133 that was heading from Keelung to Chiayi City. Investigators
The Keelung District Prosecutors’ Office today requested that a court detain three individuals, including Keelung Department of Civil Affairs Director Chang Yuan-hsiang (張淵翔), in connection with an investigation into forged signatures used in recall campaigns. Chang is suspected of accessing a household registration system to assist with recall campaigns targeting Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) city councilors Cheng Wen-ting (鄭文婷) and Jiho Chang (張之豪), prosecutors said. Prosecutors yesterday directed investigators to search six locations, including the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Keelung office and the residences of several recall campaign leaders. The recall campaign leaders, including Chi Wen-chuan (紀文荃), Yu Cheng-i (游正義) and Hsu Shao-yeh
COVID-19 infections have climbed for three consecutive weeks and are likely to reach another peak between next month and June, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. Weekly hospital visits for the disease increased by 19 percent from the previous week, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) said. From Tuesday last week to yesterday, 21 cases of severe COVID-19 and seven deaths were confirmed, and from Sept. 1 last year to yesterday, there were 600 cases and 129 deaths, he said. From Oct. 1 last year to yesterday, 95.9 percent of the severe cases and 96.7 percent of the deaths
RSS