A love for Taiwan and 25 years of friendship with President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) are the reasons Karl Lamers, a member of the German parliament and president of the Atlantic Treaty Association, decided to exchange his New Year holiday for a trip to Taiwan, Lamers said on Thursday.
Lamers, 74, is taking part in a six-day visit along with fellow Bundestag members Anita Schafer and Robert Hochbaum.
It was more than 20 years ago when Lamers, a young Christian Democratic Union (CDU) member, and Ma, who was then working as an interpreter for the late president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), struck up their friendship during an inter-party collaboration that brought dozens of Germans to Taipei and junior Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) members from Taiwan to the German city of Heidelberg.
That was his most unforgettable experience of Taiwan, Lamers said. Recalling his first encounter with Ma, Lamers said he stood out because “he realizes what he says, does what he says and knows how to convince people — all unique characteristics of a great politician.”
“And of course, he’s good-looking,” he said.
Lamers, who is on his fifth visit to the country, has a connection to Taiwan dating back as far as 30 years, when “China was still an enemy and Taiwan was totally different from now in terms of democracy,” he said.
Cooperation with China has since increased and Ma deserves the credit for implementing a “peace policy” that includes “three noes” (no independence, no unification and no use of force) that has relaxed cross-strait tension, Lamers said.
China has sent out a signal of goodwill toward Taiwan, Lamers said, in allowing Taiwan observer status at the World Health Assembly and “hopefully good things will happen in Taiwan’s participation in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the International Civil Aviation Organization.”
Concerning the large number of missiles China has aimed at Taiwan and its “Anti-Secession” law, Lamers said that there used to be a time when every Taiwanese lived in fear of China’s use of missiles.
“But in the past two years we have not had the feeling that the people were in fear. Yes, the missiles are still there, but they’re no longer a threat to the people of Taiwan because of the reduced tensions,” he said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday voiced dissatisfaction with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans- Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), whose latest meeting, concluded earlier the same day, appeared not to address the country’s application. In a statement, MOFA said the CPTPP commission had "once again failed to fairly process Taiwan’s application," attributing the inaction to the bloc’s "succumbing to political pressure," without elaborating. Taiwan submitted its CPTPP application under the name "Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu" on Sept. 22, 2021 -- less than a week after China
THE GOOD WORD: More than 100 colleges on both sides of the Pacific will work together to bring students to Taiwan so they can learn Mandarin where it is spoken A total of 102 universities from Taiwan and the US are collaborating in a push to promote Taiwan as the first-choice place to learn Mandarin, with seven Mandarin learning centers stood up in the US to train and support teachers, the Foundation for International Cooperation in Higher Education of Taiwan (FICHET) said. At the annual convention of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages held over the weekend in New Orleans, Louisiana, a Taiwan Pavilion was jointly run by 17 representative teams from the FICHET, the Overseas Community Affairs Council, the Steering Committee for the Test of Proficiency-Huayu, the
A home-style restaurant opened by a Taiwanese woman in Quezon City in Metro Manila has been featured in the first-ever Michelin Guide honoring exceptional restaurants in the Philippines. The restaurant, Fong Wei Wu (豐味屋), was one of 74 eateries to receive a “Michelin Selected” honor in the guide, while one restaurant received two Michelin stars, eight received one star and 25 were awarded a “Bib Gourmand.” The guide, which was limited to restaurants in Metro Manila and Cebu, was published on Oct. 30. In an interview, Feng Wei Wu’s owner and chef, Linda, said that as a restaurateur in her 60s, receiving an
MORE RETALIATION: China would adopt a long-term pressure strategy to prevent other countries or future prime ministers following in Sanae Takaichi’s steps, an academic said Taiwan should maintain communications with Japan, as Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is to lead a revision of security documents, Taiwanese academics said yesterday. Tensions have risen between Japan and China over remarks by Takaichi earlier this month that the use of force against Taiwan would constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan. Prospect Foundation president Lai I-chung (賴怡忠) yesterday said Takaichi’s stance regarding Taiwan is the same as past Japanese prime ministers, but her position is clearer than that of her predecessors Fumio Kishida and Shigeru Ishiba. Although Japan views a “Taiwan contingency” as a “survival-threatening situation,” which would allow its military to
RSS