This week’s US elections have left the Congressional Taiwan Caucus with glaring gaps as some of the most valuable of the 154 House caucus members were defeated.
This includes Democrats Howard Berman and Shelly Berkley.
In the Senate, Democrat Joe Lieberman retired and Republican George Allen — the first co-chair of the Senate Taiwan Caucus — was defeated in his challenge for an open seat.
“We have lost some valuable old friends,” Formosan Association for Public Affairs official Coen Blaauw said.
As a result of retirement, losing primaries or running for higher office, the House Taiwan Caucus lost the following members: Mike Pence (Republican), Dennis Rehberg (R), Shelley Berkley (Democrat), Mike Ross (D), Elton Gallegly (R), Jerry Costello (D), Dan Burton (R), Sue Myrick (R), Brad Miller (D), Edolphus Towns (D), Maurice Hinchey (D), Dan Boren (D), Charles Gonzalez (D), Gary Ackerman (D), Steven Rothman (D), John Sullivan (R), Tim Holden (D) and Cliff Stearns (R).
In addition, the following House Taiwan Caucus members were defeated in the election: Pete Stark (D), Howard Berman (D), Laura Richardson (D), Ben Chandler (D), Chip Cravaack (R), Nan Hayworth (R) and Ann Marie Buerkle (R).
Two other members, Republicans Dan Lungren and Brian Bilbray appear to be losing, but have asked for a vote recount.
On the Senate side there were a total of 27 members, but two, Lieberman and Jon Kyl (R), are retiring.
The National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development (National CAPACD) reported on Wednesday that Asian-Americans had voted for US President Barack Obama in “enormous numbers.”
While only 41 percent of Asian-Americans identify as Democrats, 72 percent voted for Obama and only 26 percent for Republican challenger Mitt Romney. In congressional races, 73 percent of Asian-American voters backed Democratic candidates, while 27 percent backed Republicans.
“Romney had room to win the overlooked Asian-American community,” National CAPACD executive director Lisa Hasegawa said.
“While Obama’s narrative attracted Asian-American voters, Romney missed an enormous opportunity to offer a direct appeal to this group,” she said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching