Former US secretary of labor Elaine Chao (趙小蘭) and her father are to be granted honorary doctoral degrees next week by a Taiwanese university in recognition of their achievements.
Chao and her father, James Chao (趙錫成), who arrived in Taiwan on Thursday, are to receive the honorary degrees from National Chiao Tung University on Monday at a ceremony in Hsinchu.
Elaine Chao was secretary of the US Department of Labor from 2001 to 2009 in the administration of then-US president George W. Bush. Her focus was on improving the competitiveness of the US workforce. She is the first American woman of Asian descent to have served as a member of the US Cabinet.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
The 61-year-old is recognized for her handling of incidents such as the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 and the Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska in 1989, and for her management of maritime transportation during the Gulf War in the early 1990s, when she served as head of the Federal Maritime Commission and deputy secretary of the US Department of Transportation.
Elaine Chao, now a distinguished fellow at the US Heritage Foundation, was born in Taiwan and emigrated to the US with her family at the age of eight.
Her husband, Mitch McConnell, a senior Republican senator from Kentucky, has been Minority Leader of the US Senate since 2007. He is set to become the Senate Majority leader, following the midterm elections earlier this month.
James Chao was a driving force behind the re-establishment of National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan in 1958. The university was originally founded in Shanghai in 1896.
A graduate of the university when it was still based in Shanghai, James Chao is a recognized leader in international shipping and finance.
James Chao also played a significant role in promoting academic exchanges between five Taiwanese and Chinese universities from 1988 to 1999, National Chiao Tung University said, which decided to grant him an honorary degree in recognition of his contribution to the university.
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) is to begin his one-year alternative military service tomorrow amid ongoing legal issues, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. Wang, who last month was released on bail of NT$150,000 (US$4,561) as he faces charges of allegedly attempting to evade military service and forging documents, has been ordered to report to Taipei Railway Station at 9am tomorrow, the Alternative Military Service Training and Management Center said. The 33-year-old would join about 1,300 other conscripts in the 263rd cohort of general alternative service for training at the Chenggong Ling camp in Taichung, a center official told reporters. Wang would first
A BETRAYAL? It is none of the ministry’s business if those entertainers love China, but ‘you cannot agree to wipe out your own country,’ the MAC minister said Taiwanese entertainers in China would have their Taiwanese citizenship revoked if they are holding Chinese citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. Several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑) and Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜), earlier this month on their Weibo (微博) accounts shared a picture saying that Taiwan would be “returned” to China, with tags such as “Taiwan, Province of China” or “Adhere to the ‘one China’ principle.” The MAC would investigate whether those Taiwanese entertainers have Chinese IDs and added that it would revoke their Taiwanese citizenship if they did, Chiu told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper
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