Greater Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) stood in front of the White House on Tuesday and poured a bucket of ice-cold water over his head, as part of a drive to raise money for research into amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
The Ice Bucket Challenge has swept the world over the past two weeks, with tens of thousands of people tipping freezing water over their heads to draw attention to the disease that robs victims of the ability to eat, speak, walk and eventually breathe.
As he stood soaking wet in Lafayette Park, directly across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House, Lai said that he had cared for ALS patients during his medical career and that he felt honored to have been asked to participate in the fundraising campaign.
The event drew more public attention to Lai’s visit to the US this week than any of the meetings he conducted with government officials, business executives and Little League Baseball organizers.
At a press conference immediately before he took the Ice Bucket Challenge, Lai said one major issue in his Washington discussions had been Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) policies toward China.
He said the party had adopted a more proactive and interactive policy on cross-strait relations and did not want to see a “continuation of the strong public discontent and dissatisfaction” that had led to the Sunflower movement.
President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration has proven itself “incapable of having a comprehensive vision for cross-strait relations that reflects the public will,” Lai said.
He said that US officials wanted to see Taiwan and China maintain a stable and ongoing working relationship and to continue progress in improving relations.
“Things have changed a lot over the last few years and there is a different public mood, and the DPP has adjusted its approach as the international environment has changed,” Lai said.
He said that DPP relations with US officials had improved significantly, as had communications.
Looking ahead to the Nov. 29 elections, he said the Ma administration’s incompetence had lost the support of the public , but that was no guarantee of DPP electoral success.
“If we are overly confident, we could be in for a bad surprise,” Lai said.
He stressed the importance of Taiwan gaining membership in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and acknowledged that restrictions on the importation of US pork were a major barrier.
“Something needs to be done about pork — the issue needs to be resolved,” Lai said.
“It is not possible to make it happen overnight, but if the government had a more comprehensive plan for public communication and implementing measures, we believe this issue could be resolved over time,” he said.
However, Lai said there were many issues in the US-Taiwan trade relationship and it did not make sense to focus solely on pork at the expense of everything else.
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