A love for Taiwan and 25 years of friendship with President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) are the reasons Karl Lamers, a member of the German parliament and president of the Atlantic Treaty Association, decided to exchange his New Year holiday for a trip to Taiwan, Lamers said on Thursday.
Lamers, 74, is taking part in a six-day visit along with fellow Bundestag members Anita Schafer and Robert Hochbaum.
It was more than 20 years ago when Lamers, a young Christian Democratic Union (CDU) member, and Ma, who was then working as an interpreter for the late president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), struck up their friendship during an inter-party collaboration that brought dozens of Germans to Taipei and junior Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) members from Taiwan to the German city of Heidelberg.
That was his most unforgettable experience of Taiwan, Lamers said. Recalling his first encounter with Ma, Lamers said he stood out because “he realizes what he says, does what he says and knows how to convince people — all unique characteristics of a great politician.”
“And of course, he’s good-looking,” he said.
Lamers, who is on his fifth visit to the country, has a connection to Taiwan dating back as far as 30 years, when “China was still an enemy and Taiwan was totally different from now in terms of democracy,” he said.
Cooperation with China has since increased and Ma deserves the credit for implementing a “peace policy” that includes “three noes” (no independence, no unification and no use of force) that has relaxed cross-strait tension, Lamers said.
China has sent out a signal of goodwill toward Taiwan, Lamers said, in allowing Taiwan observer status at the World Health Assembly and “hopefully good things will happen in Taiwan’s participation in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the International Civil Aviation Organization.”
Concerning the large number of missiles China has aimed at Taiwan and its “Anti-Secession” law, Lamers said that there used to be a time when every Taiwanese lived in fear of China’s use of missiles.
“But in the past two years we have not had the feeling that the people were in fear. Yes, the missiles are still there, but they’re no longer a threat to the people of Taiwan because of the reduced tensions,” he said.
A Keelung high school on Saturday night apologized for using a picture containing a Chinese flag on the cover of the senior yearbook, adding that it has recalled the books and pledged to provide students new ones before graduation on Thursday. Of 309 Affiliated Keelung Maritime Senior High School of National Taiwan Ocean University graduates, 248 had purchased the yearbook. Some students said that the printer committed an outrageous error in including the picture, while others said that nobody would notice such a small flag on the cover. Other students said that they cared more about the photographs of classmates and what was
GOING INTERNATIONAL: Rakuten Girls squad leader Ula Shen said she was surprised that baseball fans outside of Taiwan not only knew of them, but also knew their names Major League Baseball’s (MLB) Oakland Athletics on Saturday hosted its first Taiwanese Heritage Day event at the Oakland Coliseum with a performance by Taiwanese cheerleading squad the Rakuten Girls and a video message from Vice President William Lai (賴清德). The Rakuten Girls, who are the cheerleaders for the CPBL’s Rakuten Monkeys, performed in front of a crowd of more than 2,000 people, followed by a prerecorded address by Lai about Taiwan’s baseball culture and democratic spirit. Taiwanese pitcher Sha Tzu-chen (沙子宸), who was signed by the Athletics earlier this year, was also present. Mizuki Lin (林襄), considered a “baseball cheerleading goddess” by Taiwanese
WAY OF THE RUKAI: ‘Values deemed worthy often exist amid discomfort, so when people go against the flow, nature becomes entwined with our lives,’ a student said “Run, don’t walk” after your dreams, Nvidia cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) told National Taiwan University (NTU) graduates yesterday, as several major universities held in-person graduation ceremonies for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. “What will you create? Whatever it is, run after it. Run, don’t walk. Remember, either you’re running for food, or you are running from becoming food. Oftentimes, you can’t tell which. Either way, run,” he said. Huang was one of several tech executives addressing graduating students at Taiwanese universities. National Chengchi University held two ceremonies, with alumnus Patrick Pan (潘先國), who is head of Taiwan
A 14-legged giant isopod is the highlight of a new dish at a ramen restaurant in Taipei and it has people lining up — both for pictures and for a bite from this bowl of noodles. Since “The Ramen Boy” launched the limited-edition noodle bowl on Monday last week, declaring in a social media post that it had “finally got this dream ingredient,” more than 100 people have joined a waiting list to dine at the restaurant. “It is so attractive because of its appearance — it looks very cute,” said the 37-year-old owner of the restaurant, who wanted to be
RSS