The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) on Friday released the names of delegation members who are to represent the US at president-elect Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) inauguration in Taipei on May 20.
Former US trade representative Ron Kirk is to lead the delegation and is to be accompanied by former US deputy secretary of state John Negroponte, AIT Chairman Raymond Burghardt, AIT Director Kin Moy and Stimson Center distinguished fellow Alan Romberg.
Kirk’s name as leader of the delegation was leaked to the media a few days ago.
Photo: AP
Some Taiwanese Americans were disappointed with the list of names.
They said this would have been a perfect opportunity for US President Barack Obama to boost relations with the nation by sending higher-ranking officials.
Former Pentagon official and China expert Joseph Bosco last month published an article in The Diplomat saying that Obama should end the longstanding policy of “excessive” restraint in the face of Chinese provocation by sending US Vice President Joe Biden to Tsai’s inauguration.
He said that sending Biden to Taipei would send a “useful message” to Beijing.
There had also been speculation within the Taiwanese American community that a senior senator might attend the inauguration as a signal of strong US support for Taiwan.
An official with one leading Taiwanese American group told the Taipei Times that members were “disappointed” with the delegation as announced by the AIT in Washington.
“Sending a big name would show Beijing and Taiwan’s other neighbors that the US highly values Taiwan’s democracy,” the official said. “We certainly don’t want to show disrespect to Ron Kirk, but we were hoping for someone with political clout.”
Kirk served as US trade representative from March 2009 to March 2013. He served as mayor of Dallas, Texas, from 1995 to 2002 and as Texas secretary of state from 1994 to 1995.
Negroponte is vice chairman of McLarty Associates, a leading international strategic advisory firm. He served as US deputy secretary of state from 2007 to 2009 and later as director of national intelligence.
US House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific Chairman Matt Salmon has also announced that he will attend the inauguration.
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
FIRST TRIAL: Ko’s lawyers sought reduced bail and other concessions, as did other defendants, but the bail judge denied their requests, citing the severity of the sentences Former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was yesterday sentenced to 17 years in prison and had his civil rights suspended for six years over corruption, embezzlement and other charges. Taipei prosecutors in December last year asked the Taipei District Court for a combined 28-year, six-month sentence for the four cases against Ko, who founded the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The cases were linked to the Core Pacific City (京華城購物中心) redevelopment project and the mismanagement of political donations. Other defendants convicted on separate charges included Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Angela Ying (應曉薇), who was handed a 15-year, six-month sentence; Core Pacific
J-6 REMODEL: The converted drones are part of Beijing’s expanding mix of airpower weapons, including bombers with stand-off missiles and UAV swarms, the report said China has stationed obsolete supersonic fighters converted to attack drones at six air bases close to the Taiwan Strait, a report published this month by the Arlington, Virginia-based Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies said. Satellite imagery of the airfields from the institute’s “China Airpower Tracker” shows what appear to be lines of stubby, swept-winged aircraft matching the shape of J-6 fighters that first flew with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force in the 1960s. Since their conversion to drones, the aircraft have been identified at five bases in China’s Fujian Province and one in Guangdong Province, the report said. J.
China used fake LinkedIn profiles to harvest sensitive data from NATO and EU institutions by soliciting information from staff, a European security source said on Friday. The operation, allegedly orchestrated by the Chinese Ministry of State Security, targeted dozens of employees at the military alliance or EU organizations through fictitious accounts, the source said, confirming reports in French and Belgian media. Posing as recruiters on the online professional networking platform, Chinese spies would initially request paid reports before later soliciting non-public or even classified information. One particularly active fake profile used the name “Kevin Zhang,” claiming to be the head
RSS