Former president Lee Teng-hui (
Invited by 10 Taiwanese overseas societies, Lee's May trip will be his second to the US since he left office two years ago.
According to a tentative itinerary, Lee is to travel to Washington to deliver a speech at the National Press Club and is to play a round of golf with former US president Bush, sources said.
Lee is also to attend the annual meeting of the Association of Taiwanese Residents in the US (
Minister of Foreign Affairs Eugene Chien (
Chien's confirmation came in relation to questions from the Foreign and Overseas Chinese Affairs Committee in the legislature.
The foreign minister said he was not in complete possession of Lee's entire itinerary, but stressed that the foreign ministry would offer Lee, as a former head of state, assistance if needed.
Chien also said "there should not be any problem" with regard to Lee's visit.
Meanwhile, Chien denied a wire report on Tuesday which said Taiwan intended to sell 24 F5-E fighter jets to the Philippines in exchange for Manila's agreement to allow President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to visit the Philippines.
"President Chen had no plan to visit the Philippines," Chien said. "As for the report, the foreign ministry had no idea at all," Chien said in the morning at the legislative committee.
When asked whether the Ministry of National Defense or the National Security Council has been in charge of the reported deal between Taipei and Manila, Chien said, "it doesn't seem so."
According to the AFP report from Manila on Tuesday, Chien's counterpart in Manila Teofisto Guingona said his country is negotiating with Taiwan over the deal to strengthen its ill-equipped air force.
Guingona said the talks had been kept secret "for quite some time," adding it was a commercial transaction that should not upset China.
To prevent a potential diplomatic row, Guingona said the fighter jets would be sold first to a "private firm" which would in turn sell them to the Philippine Air Force.
But the sale depended on the approval of the US government, which licensed Taiwan the technology to make the single-seater F-5Es in the 1970s, officials in Manila said.
A high-ranking diplomatic source in Manila said Taiwan had agreed to sell the fighter jets at a bargain price to Manila on condition that President Chen were allowed to visit the Philippines.
Chien said Chen's plan to embark on his third overseas trip since his inauguration in May 2000, has yet to be mapped out.
He also denied that Chen would begin state visits to Taiwan's diplomatic allies in May.
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, was arrested in Boston last month amid US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday. The arrest of Liou was first made public on the official Web site of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday. ICE said Liou was apprehended for overstaying her visa. The Boston Field Office’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) had arrested Liou, a “fugitive, criminal alien wanted for embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes in Taiwan,” ICE said. Liou was taken into custody
The US-Japan joint statement released on Friday not mentioning the “one China” policy might be a sign that US President Donald Trump intends to decouple US-China relations from Taiwan, a Taiwanese academic said. Following Trump’s meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Friday, the US and Japan issued a joint statement where they reaffirmed the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Trump has not personally brought up the “one China” policy in more than a year, National Taiwan University Department of Political Science Associate Professor Chen Shih-min (陳世民)
‘NEVER!’ Taiwan FactCheck Center said it had only received donations from the Open Society Foundations, which supports nonprofits that promote democratic values Taiwan FactCheck Center (TFC) has never received any donation from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), a cofounder of the organization wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday. The Taipei-based organization was established in 2018 by Taiwan Media Watch Foundation and the Association of Quality Journalism to monitor and verify news and information accuracy. It was officially registered as a foundation in 2021. National Chung Cheng University communications professor Lo Shih-hung (羅世宏), a cofounder and chairman of TFC, was responding to online rumors that the TFC receives funding from the US government’s humanitarian assistance agency via the Open Society Foundations (OSF),
ANNUAL LIGHT SHOW: The lanterns are exhibited near Taoyuan’s high-speed rail station and around the Taoyuan Sports Park Station of the airport MRT line More than 400 lanterns are to be on display at the annual Taiwan Lantern Festival, which officially starts in Taoyuan today. The city is hosting the festival for the second time — the first time was in 2016. The Tourism Administration held a rehearsal of the festival last night. Chunghwa Telecom donated the main lantern of the festival to the Taoyuan City Government. The lanterns are exhibited in two main areas: near the high-speed rail (HSR) station in Taoyuan, which is at the A18 station of the Taoyuan Airport MRT, and around the Taoyuan Sports Park Station of the MRT