The 2001 Joint Conference of the ROC-USA and US-ROC Business Councils (中美工商聯合會), scheduled to be held in Boston Sept. 17 to 19, has been canceled for safety reasons in the wake of Tuesday's terror attacks in the US, sources from the US-ROC Business Council said Wednesday.
In consideration of the safety of the more than 500 government officials, lawmakers, and business and industrial heavyweights from Taiwan and the US who were scheduled to take part in the annual event, the US-ROC Business Council decided to call off the meeting after consulting with officials from the ROC-USA Business Council, said an official from the US-ROC Business Council.
Frank Carlucci, chairman of the US-ROC Business Council, said he is deeply disappointed with the development, especially after both business councils spent so much time and effort preparing for the annual conference.
Noting the seriousness of the current safety situation in the US after the deadly attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington Carlucci told his counterpart in Taipei, Wang Chung-yu (
This marks the first time ever that the annual Joint Conference of the ROC-USA and US-ROC Business Councils, an important mechanism helping foster bilateral business and industrial exchanges between the US and Taiwan, has been canceled since its inception 25 years ago.
Meanwhile, Taiwan's Minister of Economic Affairs, Lin Hsin-yi (林信義), who was previously scheduled to leave for the US Sunday to take part in a series of trade-promotion activities, was forced to cancel his plans in the wake of the apparently coordinated terrorist attacks that brought down the symbol of America's financial power and caused catastrophic damage to a portion of the building that houses the US military's nerve center.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique