Tennis player Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇) yesterday repeated that she is a Taiwanese national and that the “glory” of winning the nation’s first Grand Slam title at Wimbledon belonged to everyone in Taiwan.
Hsieh returned to Taiwan on Wednesday night following her unprecedented victory in the women’s doubles at Wimbledon last week.
Yesterday morning, she first paid her respects to the deceased founder of Four Pillars Enterprises, Yang Pin-yen (楊斌彥), who was also the chairman of the Chinese Taipei Tennis Association (CTTA).
Photo: CNA
She met reporters following her visit to CTTA chairman Liao Yu-hui (廖裕輝).
The focus of the press conference was whether she would accept a NT$50 million (about US$1.7 million) per year sponsorship from a Chinese liquor company and switch allegiance to China.
Hsieh appeared to be rather irritated by the questions.
“I have never said anything about switching allegiance on my Facebook page, so I am a bit confused as to what happened here,” she said.
“Not just Qinghai [the Chinese liquor company], but other groups have approached me. I just never mentioned any of them in public,” she said.
“I think there’s no need to make a fuss about it. In other countries, people pay attention to tennis players who have potential. In Taiwan, nobody paid attention to tennis players before Wimbledon this year, but many people had in fact tried to talk to me about possible offers well before this time,” she said.
“My nationality is Republic of China [Taiwan], what more confirmation do you need?” Hsieh asked.
Hsieh said that she competed as a Taiwanese national at Wimbledon, and the glory of garnering the Grand Slam title belongs to everyone in Taiwan, whether or not she switches allegiance in the future.
She added that people should focus on how much effort she has made to make her what she is today.
Following her victory at Wimbledon, Liao and Hsieh each donated NT$1 million to establish a development fund for young tennis players. However, the funding is not enough for so many players, she said.
Asked about her plans in the next few months, Hsieh said that she wanted to rest for about a month before competing in the pre-US Open series. She would also start looking for training venues in other countries next week.
Asked who her partner would be in the doubles, she said: “It’s Peng Shuai (彭帥). It’s settled.”
Peng was her Chinese partner at Wimbledon.
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
An SOS message in a bottle has been found in Ireland that is believed to have come from the Taiwanese captain of fishing vessel Yong Yu Sing No. 18 (永裕興18號), who has been missing without a trace for over four years, along with nine Indonesian crew members. The vessel, registered to Suao (蘇澳), went missing near Hawaii on Dec. 30, 2020. The ship has since been recovered, but the 10 crew members have never been found. The captain, surnamed Lee (李), is believed to have signed the note with his name. A post appeared on Reddit on Tuesday after a man
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
RSS