The Taipei Sports Dome (
At a luncheon for the Chinese Taipei Baseball Team held at the Presidential Office, Chen hailed the team's 24 players as national heroes.
As the president and the players chatted over lunch, pitcher Chang Chih-chia (張誌家) told the president that it was the team's wish to see the proposed Taipei Sports Dome built in the near future.
Chen replied that the dome almost became a reality while he was Taipei mayor in 1998.
"The project, the planning for which is complete, has been ignored for the past three years," said Chen. "The fact is, the project to build the indoor multi-purpose facility was ready when I was still Taipei mayor. If I had not lost the election, the dome would already have been built and this year's World Cup would have been held in it."
Plans for the dome, first proposed in 1992, have been repeatedly undone by failures to find an appropriate site.
A current proposal to build it on the site of the Sungshan Tobacco Factory is being considered by the Taipei City and central governments.
The president said that he followed every single game that Taiwan's team played during the World Cup and was particularly impressed by the performance of the team's pitchers, Chang Chih-chia and Tsai Chung-nan (蔡仲南), as well as left fielder Chen Ching-fong (陳金鋒).
In the team's final game, the contest for third place against Japan, Chang, who is still performing his military service, pitched a perfect game against a line-up of stars drawn from Japan's professional leagues. He struck out five while giving up only five hits, helping Taiwan to its second bronze medal in the tournament and fourth medal overall.
Tsai Chung-nan (蔡仲南) carried a no-hitter into the eighth inning to lift Taiwan to a 2-0 victory over the Netherlands in the quarterfinals. The win put Taiwan into the semifinals for the first time since 1988.
Left fielder Chen Ching-fong, who plays for the Los Angeles Dodgers' minor league team, batted in all the runs with two homers to lift Taiwan to a 3-0 victory over Japan for the bronze.
After winning the bronze medal, several members of Taiwan's team found themselves in demand for appearances at election campaign events.
For example, Chang, who is in the midst of completing his mandatory military service, has been invited to join the campaigns of all three of Taichung City's mayoral candidates, but has thus far declined all of those invitations.
The Military Law prevents soldiers from participating in campaign activities or voicing support for particular candidates.
CHAOS: Iranians took to the streets playing celebratory music after reports of Khamenei’s death on Saturday, while mourners also gathered in Tehran yesterday Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a major attack on Iran launched by Israel and the US, throwing the future of the Islamic republic into doubt and raising the risk of regional instability. Iranian state television and the state-run IRNA news agency announced the 86-year-old’s death early yesterday. US President Donald Trump said it gave Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back” their country. The announcements came after a joint US and Israeli aerial bombardment that targeted Iranian military and governmental sites. Trump said the “heavy and pinpoint bombing” would continue through the week or as long
TRUST: The KMT said it respected the US’ timing and considerations, and hoped it would continue to honor its commitments to helping Taiwan bolster its defenses and deterrence US President Donald Trump is delaying a multibillion-dollar arms sale to Taiwan to ensure his visit to Beijing is successful, a New York Times report said. The weapons sales package has stalled in the US Department of State, the report said, citing US officials it did not identify. The White House has told agencies not to push forward ahead of Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), it said. The two last month held a phone call to discuss trade and geopolitical flashpoints ahead of the summit. Xi raised the Taiwan issue and urged the US to handle arms sales to
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday said that it had confirmed on Saturday night with its liquefied natural gas (LNG) and crude oil suppliers that shipments are proceeding as scheduled and that domestic supplies remain unaffected. The CPC yesterday announced the gasoline and diesel prices will rise by NT$0.2 and NT$0.4 per liter, respectively, starting Monday, citing Middle East tensions and blizzards in the eastern United States. CPC also iterated it has been reducing the proportion of crude oil imports from the Middle East and diversifying its supply sources in the past few years in response to geopolitical risks, expanding
An Emirates flight from Dubai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday afternoon, the first service of the airline since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. Flight EK366 took off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 3:51am yesterday and landed at 4:02pm before taxiing to the airport’s D6 gate at Terminal 2 at 4:08pm, data from the airport and FlightAware, a global flight tracking site, showed. Of the 501 passengers on the flight, 275 were Taiwanese, including 96 group tour travelers, the data showed. Tourism Administration Deputy Director-General Huang He-ting (黃荷婷) greeted Taiwanese passengers at the airport and
RSS