Vice President Annette Lu (
Lu's China Airlines flight landed at Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta international airport at 1pm local time yesterday even as government officials continued to deny that the vice president was on a clandestine trip to Indonesia.
But China's strong opposition to her Jakarta visit disrupted Lu's plan to visit the Indonesian capital for two days before heading to Bali and possibly Australia, sources said.
PHOTO: TONY YAO, TAIPEI TIMES
"To my knowledge, Chinese officials lodged a stark protest to at least three Indonesian ministers [in regards to Lu's visit]," said Lin Shui-chi (
After spending two hours in the VIP lounge at Jakarta's international airport, Lu flew on to the resort island of Bali.
Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Michael Kau (
"I don't consider it a setback," Kau said of what happened in Jakarta. "This arrangement [of flying to Bali] is one of our strategic options," he said.
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Kong Quan (
Kong also warned Indonesia not to have any dealings with Lu lest it run the risk of jeopardizing Beijing-Jakarta ties.
In a press release yesterday the Indonesian foreign ministry stressed that the government had no advance knowledge of Lu's arrival in Jakarta, while reiterating the country's long-standing "one China" policy.
"The government of Indonesia has not in any way arranged for the visit of Lu Hsiu-lien, certainly not in her supposed capacity as vice president of an entity that names itself Republic of China," said a statement issued by the Indonesian foreign ministry.
The statement also said that the Indonesian government had not arranged the visit and that no officials would meet with Lu while she visits Bali as a private citizen.
"We have no plans for a meeting between President Megawati Sukarnoputri and the Taiwanese vice president, either in an official or unofficial capacity,'' Indonesian presidential spokesman Garibaldi Sudjatmiko said yesterday.
Some Taiwanese officials said it would be unlikely that Lu would have the opportunity to go on to Australia. Lu reportedly wanted to make the trip for medical treatment for a bad back.
"China has recently offered Australia a multibillion contract for purchasing liquefied natural gas from Australia for over the next 20 years, the largest single order Australia has secured in recent years," said a foreign ministry official, who declined to be named.
Chang Jung-feng (張榮豐), deputy secretary-general of the National Security Council, said that "Taiwan is not a normal country to a certain extent," as it faces constant constraints from China with regards to the country's external relations.
"To avoid China's moves to suppress us, we need to do everything we can to conceal many of our diplomatic efforts," Chang said.
Presidential Office Spokesman James Huang (
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today accepted an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to lead a delegation to China next month, saying she hopes to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations and bring stability to the Taiwan Strait. “I am grateful and happy to accept this invitation,” Cheng said in a statement from the KMT chairperson’s office. Cheng said she hopes both sides can work together to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations, enhance exchange and cooperation, bring stability to the Taiwan Strait and improve people’s livelihoods. At today's news conference, Cheng said any efforts to
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
RSS