With strengthening resistance to China's growing influence in Panama his main aim, President Chen Shui-bian (
His further aims include reinforcing bilateral diplomatic and economic ties.
Panama's President Mireya Moscoso, accompanied by first lady Ruby Moscoso, who is the president's elder sister, and other key Cabinet members, greeted Chen at Panama City's Tocumen Airport.
Chen made a short speech after a solemn welcoming ceremony, saying in Spanish: "How are you? I love Panama. Long live Panama!"
Moscoso said in her speech that relations between Panama and Taiwan have been cordial and solid.
The Panamanian president said she would meet with Chen today to discuss measures for further boosting bilateral cooperation in various fields.
China has entered into strong diplomatic competition with Taiwan to try to build official relations with Panama.
According to Taiwan's ambassador to Panama, China and Hong Kong have invested around US$2 billion in Panama. A Chinese company, Hutchison Whampoa (
Taiwan's annual trade with Panama is worth approximately US$585 million, about 90 percent of which is linked to businesses in the Colon free trade zone on the Atlantic side of the Panama Canal. Taiwan's Evergreen Group has a major port at Colon. Moscoso said relations with Taiwan "are solid" and that Taiwanese and Panaman-ian businessmen were to consult on various projects today.
Chang Jung-fa (
Hundreds of overseas Chinese community representatives greeted Chen when he arrived at the hotel where he and his entourage are staying during the visit.
In the evening, Moscoso hosted a state banquet in honor of Chen and his entourage at the presidential palace in Panama City's old quarter. Panama represents the third leg of Chen's five-nation tour of Latin America. He is scheduled to address Panama's Congress, the Legislative Assembly today, before concluding the visit with a trip to the Panama Canal tomorrow morning.
Chen's visit to Panama is the first by a Taiwanese head of state since September 1997, when former president Lee Teng-hui (
Some 130,000 overseas Chinese live in Panama. Some can trace ancestors in Panama back to the construction of a railroad in the 1850s, but thousands of others have arrived in recent years from China. Chen's visit has been accompanied by growing signs of pressure from the local Chinese community for greater political ties with Beijing.
Chen arrived from Guatemala, where Taiwanese businessmen have complained that crime has been a problem.
Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo seemed to shrug aside crime as a global plague during a joint news conference with Chen on Monday. "Yesterday I learned that in Mexico City alone there have been more than 1,000 kidnappings this year," he said.
Taiwan's Minister of Economic Affairs Lin Hsin-yi (
MILESTONE: The foreign minister called the signing ‘a major step forward in US-Taiwan relations,’ while the Presidential Office said it was a symbol of the nations’ shared values US President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed into law the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, which requires the US Department of State to regularly review and update guidelines governing official US interactions with Taiwan. The new law is an amendment to the Taiwan Assurance Act of 2020 focused on reviewing guidelines on US interactions with Taiwan. Previously, the state department was required to conduct a one-time review of its guidance governing relations with Taiwan, but under the new bill, the agency must conduct a review “not less than every five years.” It must then submit an updated report based on its findings “not later
The Presidential Office today thanked the US for enacting the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, which requires the US Department of State to regularly review and update guidelines governing official US interactions with Taiwan. The new law, signed by US President Donald Trump yesterday, is an amendment to the Taiwan Assurance Act of 2020 focused on reviewing guidelines on US interactions with Taiwan. Previously, the department was required to conduct a one-time review of its guidance governing relations with Taiwan, but under the new bill, the agency must conduct such a review "not less than every five years." It must then submit an updated
CROSS-STRAIT COLLABORATION: The new KMT chairwoman expressed interest in meeting the Chinese president from the start, but she’ll have to pay to get in Beijing allegedly agreed to let Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) around the Lunar New Year holiday next year on three conditions, including that the KMT block Taiwan’s arms purchases, a source said yesterday. Cheng has expressed interest in meeting Xi since she won the KMT’s chairmanship election in October. A source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a consensus on a meeting was allegedly reached after two KMT vice chairmen visited China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Director Song Tao (宋濤) in China last month. Beijing allegedly gave the KMT three conditions it had to
STAYING ALERT: China this week deployed its largest maritime show of force to date in the region, prompting concern in Taipei and Tokyo, which Beijing has brushed off Deterring conflict over Taiwan is a priority, the White House said in its National Security Strategy published yesterday, which also called on Japan and South Korea to increase their defense spending to help protect the first island chain. Taiwan is strategically positioned between Northeast and Southeast Asia, and provides direct access to the second island chain, with one-third of global shipping passing through the South China Sea, the report said. Given the implications for the US economy, along with Taiwan’s dominance in semiconductors, “deterring a conflict over Taiwan, ideally by preserving military overmatch, is a priority,” it said. However, the strategy also reiterated
RSS