Taiwanese officials hosted a reception on Wednesday at the Twin Oaks Estate in Washington — the official residence of nine former Republic of China (ROC) ambassadors to the US — to mark the upcoming 101st ROC National Day.
It is only the second time in the past 33 years that Taiwan has been allowed to hold National Day celebrations at Twin Oaks rather than at a hotel, and the event is seen as a sign of warming Taiwan-US relations.
The facility ceased being used as the ROC ambassador’s official residence after diplomatic ties were severed in 1979, but it still belongs to the Taiwanese government.
Photo: CNA
Representative to the US Jason Yuan (袁健生) said it was a great honor for Taiwan to be able to hold ROC centennial celebrations there last year.
“I’m overjoyed and excited to be able to celebrate the 10lst birthday of the ROC today at Twin Oaks Estate again,” he said.
Yuan was scheduled to depart the following day for Taiwan, where he is to assume his new position as secretary-general of the National Security Council.
Raymond Burghardt, chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), which represents US interests in Taiwan in the absence of official ties, said that although he had been to Twin Oaks many times, this was the first time he had attended an ROC National Day celebration at the facility.
Burghardt dismissed speculation that the absence of high-ranking US officials from the recent Taiwan-US Defense Industry Conference was a show of Washington’s displeasure with the standoff between Taiwanese coast guard vessels and their Japanese counterparts in waters near the disputed Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) late last month.
Rather, he said, the frequent contact between officials from the two sides in recent years means that they no longer need to use occasions such as the defense industry conference to meet each other.
Taiwanese officials can now hold direct talks with their US counterparts at the Pentagon, he added.
Just a day earlier, in fact, Vice Minister of National Defense Andrew Yang (楊念祖) visited the Pentagon to talk with US Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter and Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs Mark Lippert.
Yang later also met with Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific affairs Kurt Campbell and Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs Andrew Shapiro at the AIT’s headquarters, Burghardt said.
The National Day reception drew more than 4,000 guests, including US politicians, think tank-affiliated experts, diplomats and Taiwanese expatriates.
The attendees included Representative Dan Burton, AIT Managing Director Barbara Schrage, former AIT chairman Richard Bush, former AIT Taipei Office director Douglas Paal, former US secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld and former deputy secretary of defense Paul Wolfowitz.
“China is preparing to invade Taiwan,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an exclusive interview with British media channel Sky News for a special report titled, “Is Taiwan ready for a Chinese invasion?” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today in a statement. The 25-minute-long special report by Helen Ann-Smith released yesterday saw Sky News travel to Penghu, Taoyuan and Taipei to discuss the possibility of a Chinese invasion and how Taiwan is preparing for an attack. The film observed emergency response drills, interviewed baseball fans at the Taipei Dome on their views of US President
ECONOMIC BENEFITS: The imports from Belize would replace those from Honduras, whose shrimp exports have dropped 67 percent since cutting ties in 2023 Maintaining ties with Taiwan has economic benefits, Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials said yesterday, citing the approval of frozen whiteleg shrimp imports from Belize by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an example. The FDA on Wednesday approved the tariff-free imports from Belize after the whiteleg shrimp passed the Systematic Inspection of Imported Food, which would continue to boost mutual trade, the ministry said. Taiwan’s annual consumption of whiteleg shrimps stands at 30,000 tonnes, far exceeding domestic production, the ministry said. Taiwan used to fill the gap by importing shrimps from Honduras, but purchases slumped after Tegucigalpa severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan
The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a southwestern extension of the Sanying MRT Line from New Taipei to Bade District (八德) in Taoyuan, with a goal of starting construction by late 2026. The 4.03-kilometer extension, featuring three new stations, will run from the current terminus at Yingtao Fude Station (LB12) in New Taipei City to Dannan Station (LB14), where it will connect with Taoyuan’s Green Line, New Taipei City Metro Corp said in a statement. This extension will follow the completion of core Sanying Line, a 14.29-kilometer medium-capacity system linking Tucheng (土城), Sansia (三峽)
CARGO LOSS: About 50 containers at the stern of the ‘Ever Lunar’ cargo ship went overboard, prompting the temporary closure of the port and disrupting operations Evergreen Marine Corp, Taiwan’s largest container shipper, yesterday said that all crew members aboard the Ever Lunar (長月) were safe after dozens of containers fell overboard off the coast of Peru the previous day. The incident occurred at 9:40am on Friday as the Ever Lunar was anchored and waiting to enter the Port of Callao when it suddenly experienced severe rolling, Evergreen said in a statement. The rolling, which caused the containers to fall, might have been caused by factors including a tsunami triggered by an earthquake in Russia, poor winter sea conditions in South America or a sudden influx of waves,
RSS