The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday confirmed there would be three groups of well-wishers from Taiwan attending US president-elect Barack Obama’s inauguration ceremony next Tuesday, but emphasized there was only one official government delegation.
MOFA Spokesman Henry Chen (陳銘政) said after much deliberation over the scheduling conflicts between the official delegation, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) delegation and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) delegation, there would be three separate groups attending the event even though the groups will enter and exit the US at the same time.
FUNDING
“Only the official delegation headed by Legislative Yuan Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) will be fully funded by the government and authorized to speak on behalf of the administration. The other two party delegations will only be partially subsidized,” Chen said.
The DPP group will be led by former vice-president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) while KMT Legislator John Chiang (蔣孝嚴) will head his party’s delegation.
With less than a week to go before the inauguration, however, MOFA still was unsure if it could get enough tickets to accommodate the 30-person delegation.
Chen could not confirm whether the government delegation would be seated along with delegates from other countries or be seated with members of the public.
When asked yesterday morning if the Taipei Economic and Cultural Relations Office in Washington had obtained enough tickets for this year’s ceremony, Chen answered, “I am quite sure we will have enough tickets.”
In the afternoon, a Central News Agency report from Washington quoted TECRO Head Jason Yuan (袁健生) as saying given the overwhelming number of well-wishers coming from the around the world, it would be difficult “to even get one ticket.”
NO SPLIT
DPP Spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) said the party took the nation’s diplomacy seriously and insisted there be only one Taiwanese delegation attending the inauguration. The DPP did not want to split the delegation and asked the MOFA to ditch its three-delegation plan, he added.
Cheng said that because then KMT Vice chairman Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) refused to join the government delegation in 2001 to attend the inauguration of US President George W. Bush, the DPP government had no choice but to allow Siew and other KMT members to form a separate KMT delegation, but this time around the DPP had not chosen to boycott the government delegation.
An alleged US government plan to encourage Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) to form a joint venture with Intel to boost US chipmaking would place the Taiwanese foundry giant in a more disadvantageous position than proposed tariffs on imported chips, a semiconductor expert said yesterday. If TSMC forms a joint venture with its US rival, it faces the risk of technology outflow, said Liu Pei-chen (劉佩真), a researcher at the Taiwan Industry Economics Database of the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research. A report by international financial services firm Baird said that Asia semiconductor supply chain talks suggest that the US government would
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
Starlux Airlines on Tuesday announced it is to launch new direct flights from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to Ontario, California, on June 2. The carrier said it plans to deploy the new-generation Airbus A350 on the Taipei-Ontario route. The Airbus A350 features a total of 306 seats, including four in first class, 26 in business class, 36 in premium economy and 240 in economy. According to Starlux’s initial schedule, four flights would run between Taoyuan and Ontario per week: Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Flights are to depart from Taoyuan at 8:05pm and arrive in California at 5:05pm (local time), while return flights
Nearly 800 Indian tourists are to arrive this week on an incentive tour organized by Indian company Asian Painted Ltd, making it the largest tour group from the South Asian nation to visit since the COVID-19 pandemic. The travelers are scheduled to arrive in six batches from Sunday to Feb. 25 for five-day tours, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. The tour would take the travelers, most of whom are visiting Taiwan for the first time, to several tourist sites in Taipei and Yilan County, including tea houses in Taipei’s Maokong (貓空), Dadaocheng (大稻埕) and Ximending (西門町) areas. They would also visit