Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) yesterday concluded his round-the-nation trip with a final stop in Yilan County, saying that his final wish was to visit Yushan (玉山), the highest mountain in Taiwan.
“I’ve asked my doctor about [visiting Yushan] and was told that such trip would not be recommended due to my health condition. I’m hoping that my ashes can be scattered on top of Yushan after I die,” said the 90-year-old in Yilan. “Being buried on Yushan would mean that I would be with Taiwan forever.”
Lee, who retired from politics after 2000, began a series of nationwide tours in April last year, taking available time to visit every city and county — something he was unable to do before — when his health allowed.
Photo: CNA
The tours, which included visits to old friends, local business owners, hospitals, farms, industrial parks, as well as a trip to outlying Green Island, have been described as Lee’s “last glimpse” of the country he dearly cared for and loved.
Keelung and New Taipei City (新北市) were the only administrative zones Lee has not visited after a three-day trip to Hualien County and Yilan that began on Wednesday.
The former president offered his observation of domestic politics, saying the latest incident regarding food safety was further evidence of the incompetence of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration.
He was also critical of Ma’s personnel decisions, in particular his appointment of Minister of Justice Lo Ying-shay (羅瑩雪) and Minister of Health and Welfare Chiu Wen-ta (邱文達).
“Appointing my lawyer as the justice minister is not something I would have done,” he said.
Lo was known for her close relationship with Ma. When Ma was accused in 2007 of misusing his special allowance funds during his two terms as mayor of Taipei, Lo represented Yu Wen (余文), then a Taipei City Government staffer who handled reimbursements for the allowance, in defending Ma’s reputation.
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