Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) is planning to visit the US early next year, KMT Department of International Affairs head Alexander Huang (黃介正) said yesterday.
Huang at a news conference in Taipei said that Chu plans to embark on a US tour that would likely take place after the Jan. 29 to Feb. 6 Lunar New Year holiday and include stops in Washington, and other cities on the east and west coasts.
Chu is planning to meet with US government officials and lawmakers, as well as think tank representatives to communicate the KMT’s position on various issues, Huang said, without elaborating.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
Chu is also not ruling out the possibility of visiting Japan, Huang said, adding that the party values its relationship with Japan, and is keen to interact with Japanese lawmakers.
The KMT’s deputy chairs and other leading members of the party also have plans to visit the US as part of efforts to expand the party’s cooperation in areas such as technology, economic issues and national security.
It had been reported that Chu could visit Washington and take part in a planned reopening of the KMT liaison office in the US.
Although Huang did not confirm those reports, he said that the liaison office would begin operations after the Lunar New Year holiday.
The KMT closed its US office shortly after former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took office in 2008.
Since then the KMT has not had a representative to the US until Chu assumed the role of the KMT chairman in October.
Chu on Nov. 30 sent KMT Department of International Affairs deputy director Eric Huang (黃裕鈞) to the US to reopen the liaison office.
Speaking via videoconference at the news conference, Eric Huang said the preparation work is “on schedule” thanks to the support from the US government, as well as US-based KMT members and supporters.
There has been a lot of discussion about Taiwan among US government officials, lawmakers and academics, and they are interested in learning about the views of the main opposition party, he said.
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
CPBL players, cheerleaders and officials pose at a news conference in Taipei yesterday announcing the upcoming All-Star Game. This year’s CPBL All-Star Weekend is to be held at the Taipei Dome on July 19 and 20.
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a
RSS