American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Christopher Marut yesterday described the “strong ties of partnership” of the US and Taiwan as “delicious mangoes” as the institute held a reception to celebrate the 237th anniversary of US independence.
Marut on Monday visited Cheng Han-chih (鄭罕池), who made Yujing District (玉井) in Greater Tainan famous as the home of the mango, and the site where the first Irwin mango tree was planted in Taiwan 51 years ago. The 84-year-old Cheng, dubbed the father of the Irwin mango, in 1962 grafted samplings from Irwin mango trees in Florida onto native Taiwanese mango trees, making the species the most popular type of mango both at home and overseas.
In his speech at the reception, Marut yesterday said the experiment by Cheng, assisted at that time by the US Agency for International Development, resulted in the successful commercial production of Irwin mangoes and the “delicious mangoes” are “literally a fruit of the strong ties of partnership” between Taiwan an the US.
Marut said the values upon which the US was founded, such as freedom and democracy, are shared by Taiwanese and underpin the enduring friendship and strong bonds that define bilateral relations.
“We look forward to continuing to work together to nurture, protect and promote the values of freedom, respect for the dignity of individuals and economic and environmental progress,” he added.
Several officials attended the event, including former vice president Vincent Siew (蕭萬長), Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), National Security Council Secretary-General Jason Yuan (袁健生), Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lin (林永樂) and a number of diplomats in Taiwan.
On behalf of the government of the Republic of China (ROC), Lin expressed his good wishes to the US and said he expected the friendship to endure.
Lin said the ROC government would continue to enhance its substantial cooperation with the US on various issues — trade, security, culture, education and technology — in the service of freedom and democracy.
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