Amid a recent war of words between Taiwan and China over the ancestral homeland of rising NBA star Jeremy Lin (林書豪), a US lawmaker yesterday stressed the Taiwanese American’s US roots during a meeting with President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
The US-born Lin, whose parents are Taiwanese immigrants, has been hailed as “the glory of Taiwan” and attracted discussions on his identity.
Meeting with visiting a US congressional delegation at the Presidential Office in the morning, Ma promoted bilateral relations between Taiwan and the US and said the two nations valued democracy and peace.
Photo: CNA
Besides, “we both appreciate Jeremy Lin,” Ma said.
US Representative Eni Faleomavaega from American Samoa, a ranking member on the US House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, countered by stressing that Lin is a US citizen.
“I’m sorry to tell you that Jeremy Lin is an American, a true-blooded born American who happens to be of Taiwanese ancestry, and we are proud to have him,” he said, drawing laughs from Ma and the guests.
Faleomavaega then applauded the achievements of the 19 million Asian Americans in the US and said the US appreciated their accomplishments.
Ma stressed the government’s efforts in promoting relations with US and China and thanked Washington for its assistance to Taiwan as the country tries to improve relations with China.
“Replacing conflicts with reconciliation and replacing confrontations with negotiation will remain the principles of my cross-strait policies during my second term,” Ma said.
As to the bilateral relations between Taiwan and the US, the president said the two sides would continue to develop positive relations, while maintaining rounds of negotiations on major issues.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS