Former US undersecretary of state Keith Krach has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, in part for his work protecting freedoms for Taiwan and Uighurs.
“Mr Krach has ... spoken out — loudly and consistently — in support of Taiwan and its drive for independence,” the New Architecture Foundation said in its letter submitting the nomination.
In Washington, Krach served as the top official for economic growth, energy and the environment under former US president Donald Trump, and still serves as a senior adviser for the administration of US President Joe Biden.
Photo: Presidential Office via AP
He made headlines in 2020 when he became the highest-ranking US Department of State official to visit Taiwan since the nations severed diplomatic ties in 1979.
During the September visit, he attended a memorial service for former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), and spoke with officials and representatives from various sectors on bolstering economic and other partnerships.
Krach in May 2020 also brokered a US$12 billion plan for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) to build a 5-nanometer fab in Arizona, setting the stage for other chip producers to build their own “trusted” facilities in the US.
Photo: Reuters
Krach also played an instrumental role in leading the US to formally recognize Uighur internment camps as “state-sponsored genocide.”
The nominators highlighted Krach’s efforts to build the Clean Network, an alliance aiming to help democracies build secure network infrastructure in response to China’s ambitions to control 5G communications.
The alliance, launched in 2020, now boasts 60 nations comprising two-thirds of global GDP, as well as more than 200 telecoms.
It was formed on the basis of the “trust principle,” a “democratic and peaceful alternative to China’s power principle” that uses transparency, positive reinforcement and economic solidarity to achieve success, the nominators said.
“Peaceful partnership, not fear mongering. That is the stark choice that Keith Krach has enabled through his years-long campaign and mission to unify the world around a common, peaceful technology accord, formally recognized today as the Clean Network alliance,” the letter said.
Taiwan counts itself among the network’s ranks, creating the opportunity to recognize its sovereignty, it added.
“Keith Krach’s attendant efforts regarding human rights abuses by China and Taiwan’s quest for independence are, in many ways, just different colors in the same noble cause that Mr Krach pursues as a life purpose,” the nominators said. “The world truly is a better and safer place because of his courage and efforts.”
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching