Celebrations are to take place in front of the Presidential Office Building for president-elect Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) inauguration on May 20.
However, for environmental reasons there will not be the usual fireworks, a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) delegation said after meeting with Presidential Office officials to discuss the inauguration ceremony.
“First of all, the inauguration celebration will be held in front of the Presidential Office Building, second, out of consideration for the environment and for simplicity, we will not have a fireworks display,” DPP News and Information Department Director Alex Huang (黃重諺) said after the DPP delegation, headed by DPP Deputy Secretary-General Liao Chin-kuei (廖錦桂), left the Presidential Office Building.
“Third, the state banquet will be held in Taipei and, following tradition, the reception for our overseas compatriots returning to Taiwan to take part is scheduled for May 21,” Huang said.
Huang said it was decided the celebration would be held in front of the Presidential Office Building so that more people could take part, adding that Tsai is to go outside to attend the celebration after taking part in the official swearing-in ceremony inside the building.
In both 2008 and 2012, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) celebrated his inauguration at the Taipei Arena.
Huang said that instead of a fireworks display, a light show would be displayed on the Presidential Office Building.
Huang also confirmed that Tsai officially invited People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) to attend her inauguration.
However, a final decision as to whether to invite former presidents Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) has not been made, he said.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS