President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) once again demonstrated his gift for the gaffe yesterday, raising a laugh during his welcome of the foreign minister of Sao Tome and Principe and his wife at the Presidential Office.
In his welcoming speech, Ma hailed Foreign Minister of Sao Tome and Principe Carlos Alberto Pires Tiny as coming from another of Taiwan’s West African allies, Burkina Faso. The blunder drew a round of laughter before Ma realized his mistake and corrected himself.
In a bid to avoid further embarrassment for the president, the Presidential Office asked the media not to report the faux pas. Presidential staffers later said that the laughter had not come from people inside the room, but from outside.
PHOTO: CNA
It was not the first time Ma has made a slip-up since he took office in May last year. In August, Ma got the name of a former Japanese governor wrong on two different occasions. In November, the president said during a TV interview that the NT$3,600 consumer vouchers that were issued to the public were worth NT$36,000.
In January, Ma referred to Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) as “Hu Yaobang (胡耀邦),” a former Chinese Communist Party secretary-general. When attending the funeral ceremony of a Buddhist monk last month, Ma referred to the deceased by two different names, neither of which was correct.
At a separate event yesterday, Ma praised the enactment of the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA), saying it had contributed to peace in the Taiwan Strait in the 30 years since its enactment.
Ma said he has made efforts to improve relations with China since he took office, and added that his efforts had paid off, as the first signs of peace have appeared in the Taiwan Strait.
“It has a lot to do with the [US’] Taiwan Relations Act and the US government’s dutiful implementation of the law,” he said. “The relationship between Taiwan and the US will not erode, but only strengthen.”
Ma made the remarks while meeting a delegation of US parliamentarians led by Florida Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart at the Presidential Office yesterday.
Describing Washington as an “important ally,” Ma said he was pleased to see the US government and its people maintain economic, cultural and other non-diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
He also thanked the administration of former US president George W. Bush for notifying Congress to approve Taiwan’s arms procurement package, saying the purchase was important to the country’s safety and that Washington was obligated to sell defensive weapons to Taiwan based on the TRA.
In the 11 months since he took office, Ma said, the country had restored mutual trust with the US and both Taipei and Washington have made significant efforts to resolve problems.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
The Republic of China Army Command yesterday relieved Kinmen Defense Battalion commander after authorities indicted the officer on charges connected to using methamphetamine. The Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Wednesday detained Colonel He (何) after the Coast Guard linked him to drug shipments and proceeded to charge him yesterday for using and possessing crystal meth. The man was released on a NT$50,000 bail and banned from leaving Kinmen, the office said. Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Chen Chien-yi (陳建義) told a news conference yesterday that He has been removed and another officer is taking over the unit as the acting commander. The military
RSS