The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday downplayed speculation that President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) might soon visit the US and speak at Cornell University.
The rumors originated among political figures and in the media, and are unfounded, the ministry said.
The Presidential Office has a policy to publicly announce the president’s visits to other countries when they are scheduled, it added.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
Tsai in 2019 spent a total of four nights in the US — in New York and Denver — on her way to and from visits to Caribbean diplomatic allies St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Lucia, St Kitts and Nevis, and Haiti.
Tsai met with Taiwanese and US business representatives, and attended a banquet with members of the Taiwanese-American community.
At the time, Tsai was treated as a distinguished guest in the US, setting a precedent, the ministry said.
Among the reports foreseeing a visit to the US by Tsai was an article in the Japanese Sankei Shimbun yesterday saying Tsai would travel to the country in August.
Three possibilities are under consideration, according to anonymous government sources cited in the article.
One is that Tsai would speak at an event hosted by her alma mater, Cornell University, in New York State.
This would echo former president Lee Teng-hui’s (李登輝) US visit in June 1995, when he spoke at Cornell, where he obtained a doctoral degree in agricultural economics in 1968.
Another plan would have Tsai attend an event at a US think tank, while a third possibility would have Tsai stop in the US on her way to or from the inauguration of the Paraguayan president in August, the report said.
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
RSS