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.
Three batches of banana sauce imported from the Philippines were intercepted at the border after they were found to contain the banned industrial dye Orange G, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. From today through Sept. 2 next year, all seasoning sauces from the Philippines are to be subject to the FDA’s strictest border inspection, meaning 100 percent testing for illegal dyes before entry is allowed, it said in a statement. Orange G is an industrial coloring agent that is not permitted for food use in Taiwan or internationally, said Cheng Wei-chih (鄭維智), head of the FDA’s Northern Center for
The Chinese military has built landing bridge ships designed to expand its amphibious options for a potential assault on Taiwan, but their combat effectiveness is limited due to their high vulnerability, a defense expert said in an analysis published on Monday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said that the deployment of such vessels as part of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy’s East Sea Fleet signals a strong focus on Taiwan. However, the ships are highly vulnerable to precision strikes, which means they could be destroyed before they achieve their intended
About 4.2 million tourist arrivals were recorded in the first half of this year, a 10 percent increase from the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. The growth continues to be consistent, with the fourth quarter of this year expected to be the peak in Taiwan, the agency said, adding that it plans to promote Taiwan overseas via partnerships and major events. From January to June, 9.14 million international departures were recorded from Taiwan, an 11 percent increase from the same period last year, with 3.3 million headed for Japan, 1.52 million for China and 832,962 to South Korea,
REWRITING HISTORY: China has been advocating a ‘correct’ interpretation of the victory over Japan that brings the CCP’s contributions to the forefront, an expert said An elderly Chinese war veteran’s shin still bears the mark of a bullet wound he sustained when fighting the Japanese as a teenager, a year before the end of World War II. Eighty years on, Li Jinshui’s scar remains as testimony to the bravery of Chinese troops in a conflict that killed millions of their people. However, the story behind China’s overthrow of the brutal Japanese occupation is deeply contested. Historians broadly agree that credit for victory lies primarily with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)-led Republic of China (ROC) Army. Its leader, Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a
RSS