Vice President William Lai (賴清德) on Tuesday began his stopover in Los Angeles on his way to Honduras with an online meeting with US lawmakers that touched on bilateral trade and China.
Lai, who is leading a delegation to attend the inauguration ceremony of Honduran president-elect Xiomara Castro today, arrived at Los Angeles International Airport at about 6:35am on Tuesday, the Presidential Office said.
Lai, joined by Representative to the US Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴), brought up bilateral trade relations and the threats posed by China, said Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋), who is the office’s deputy secretary-general and a member of the delegation.
Photo courtesy of the Presidential Office via CNA
Lee did not provide further details on what was discussed, but said US Senator Edward Markey, chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Asia-Pacific, and US Representative Mark Takano, chairman of the US House of Representatives Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, were among the 17 US lawmakers who attended the meeting.
Following the meeting, US Representative John Curtis of Utah wrote on social media that he “was honored to lead the first meeting with the VP of Taiwan on his trip to the US.”
“Utah and Taiwan have many ties, ties I have worked to strengthen during my time in Congress,” he said.
The meeting was the first of seven videoconferences that Lai was to have with US politicians and representatives of Taiwanese communities during his 24-hour stopover in Los Angeles, the office said.
Upon arriving in Los Angeles, Lai was greeted by American Institute in Taiwan Chairman James Moriarty, who boarded the charter plane to welcome the delegation.
The institute represents US interests in Taiwan in the absence of diplomatic ties between the two countries.
Lai then went to Hilton Los Angeles and Universal City Hotel, where he was greeted by Honduran Consul-General Maria Fernanda Rivera Fiallos, as well as dozens of Taiwanese expatriates.
Speaking to reporters outside the hotel, Lai thanked the Taiwanese community in the US for its efforts and contributions to increasing Taiwan’s participation in international society.
Lai’s delegation is to depart for Honduras this morning.
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant’s license has expired and it cannot simply be restarted, the Executive Yuan said today, ahead of national debates on the nuclear power referendum. The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County was disconnected from the nation’s power grid and completely shut down on May 17, the day its license expired. The government would prioritize people’s safety and conduct necessary evaluations and checks if there is a need to extend the service life of the reactor, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference. Lee said that the referendum would read: “Do
RSS