Taiwan-born fashion designer Jason Wu (吳季剛) attended a farm fair in Taipei yesterday to help promote local agricultural products.
The four-day event in the lobby of the Taipei 101 building was organized by the Taiwan Advanced Agribusiness Development Association, which is headed by Wu’s father, Wu Kun-min (吳昆民).
“Although I’m not an expert [in agriculture], I feel an obligation and responsibility to help Taiwan promote its products,” Jason Wu said.
The New York-based designer said he was very excited every time he returned to Taiwan because he saw more improvements in the country.
This time, he was especially happy to be able to come back to celebrate his father’s achievements, he said.
Jason Wu said it was from his father that he gained an entrepreneurial spirit and a good work ethic, so he wanted to use the opportunity to pay tribute to his father and let him know that his success as a designer was due to his father’s inspiration and guidance.
Jason Wu shot to worldwide fame in early 2009 after US first lady Michelle Obama wore one of his designs to her husband’s inauguration ball. In Taiwan, first lady Chow Mei-ching (周美青) won widespread praise when she appeared in a long-sleeved brown satin dress designed by Wu at the National Day celebrations in 2010.
Speaking at the farm fair, Wu Kun-min complained about the government’s recent decision to reopen Taiwan’s market to hairy crabs from China in September.
Wu Kun-min said he felt a bit sad about the policy because local farmers have spent many years raising hairy crabs in Miaoli County, and just before the first domestically raised hairy crabs hit the market on Oct. 10, Chinese crabs were allowed into the country.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard