The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) on Friday declined to comment on a WikiLeaks report of a free trip to Taiwan offered to campaign team members of Democratic US presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton.
“We will not comment on information from unidentified sources on the Internet,” the ministry said.
According to the report, Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta met with Shen Lyu-shun (沈呂巡), who at the time was Taiwan’s representative to the US, in August last year.
After the meeting, Podesta mentioned that he would send former US senator Thomas Daschle, who was planning to visit Taiwan in November that year, some names of people from the campaign team who “might like a free trip,” according to WikiLeaks.
The information showed the exchanges of e-mails and arrangements for the meeting were made through the Daschle Group, a lobbying company in Washington founded by Daschle.
Daschle was a senator from South Carolina, and the majority leader in the US Senate at the time.
During the Democratic National Convention in July this year, he spoke firmly of his support for Taiwan.
WikiLeaks has recently released several batches of Podesta’s e-mails, and Clinton’s campaign camp has said that this was an attempt by Russia to sway the presidential election, but has declined to confirm the authenticity of the content.
Meanwhile, Shen said he did indeed meet with Podesta, but only to exchange views on Taiwan-US relations.
“We had talks on major issues,” Shen said, adding they would not have bothered talking about trifling matters such as free trips.
He said that his responsibility as a representative to the US was to make sure major US political figures did not hear only China’s voice, and to promote Taiwan’s importance.
He said he mentioned that Taiwan has surpassed India to become the ninth-largest trading partner of the US, which impressed Daschle.
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
CHANGES: After-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during vacations or after-school study periods must not be used to teach new material, the ministry said The Ministry of Education yesterday announced new rules that would ban giving tests to most elementary and junior-high school students during morning study and afternoon rest periods. The amendments to regulations governing public education at elementary schools and junior high schools are to be implemented on Aug. 1. The revised rules stipulate that schools are forbidden to use after-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during summer or winter vacation or after-school study periods to teach new course material. In addition, schools would be prohibited from giving tests or exams to students in grades one to eight during morning study and afternoon break periods, the
Advocates of the rights of motorcycle and scooter riders yesterday protested in front of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in Taipei, making three demands. They were joined by 30 passenger vehicles, which surrounded the ministry to make three demands related to traffic regulations — that motorcycles and scooters above 250cc be allowed on highways, that all motorcycles and scooters be allowed on inside lanes, and that driver and rider training programs be reformed. The ministry said that it has no plans to allow motorcycles on national highways for the time being, and said that motorcycles would be allowed on the inner
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to 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), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition