To honor Vice President Annette Lu's (呂秀蓮) contribution to the country during the past four years, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) will decorate her today at a ceremony witnessed by the heads of the government's five branches.
"The president will personally decorate Vice President Lu with the Order of Propitious Clouds with Special Grand Cordon (
On behalf of Chen, Lu is scheduled to lead a delegation on a two-week tour of three of Taiwan's allies in Central America on Friday.
She will stop over in California on her way to a presidential inauguration ceremony in El Salvador. She will also visit Guatemala and Costa Rica.
Tradition holds that the president decorates senior officials who are retiring or appointed to other posts.
In May 2000, then president Lee Teng-hui (
Lu vowed that the enhancement of human rights and "rule by law" will be her priorities for the next four years.
"Those two issues are the main pillars of democracy," Lu said while receiving representatives of the "World Federation of Taiwanese Associations" (
Lu affirmed that the significance of the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) victory in the presidential election was the birth of "a new Taiwan," which includes complete freedom of speech, respect for the judiciary and the realization of full democracy.
Responding to questions about protests by the pan-blue camp's supporters after the election, Lu said that the result of the election was an achievement based on the entire country's efforts during the past few decades and should not be viewed as a result of ethnic divisions.
"The future of cross-strait developments is based on the theme of `peace,' which is the same principle that will facilitate domestic union," she said.
"Those who did not vote for the Chen-Lu ticket were also `Taiwanese,' not just `Mainlanders,' and therefore those who adopted the point of view of `ethnic disputes' to explain the result of the presidential election were just lazy and irresponsible," she said, without elaborating.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
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