Taiwan did much to help Honduran President Xiomara Castro and her family during a coup in 2009, former Taiwanese ambassador to Honduras Lai Chien-chung (賴建中) said yesterday in response to allegations that Taipei’s indifference at the time helped push the country toward Beijing.
Lai, who served as ambassador from 2006 to 2011, said that Taiwan was among very few countries that reached out to Castro, who was then first lady, when then-Honduran president Manuel Zelaya was ousted and sent into exile.
“We extended our utmost goodwill and efforts,” Lai said, adding that related correspondence can be found at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Photo: AFP
Lai’s remarks came after former legislator Tsai Cheng-yuan (蔡正元) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on Thursday said on Facebook that Taiwan refused to shelter Castro during the crisis and only helped her pregnant daughter.
Lai said that the coup took him by surprise, and he provided shelter to Castro’s husband and two daughters at his residence before the situation settled down.
Lai sheltered Castro at the US embassy separately to spread the risk, he said.
Castro often dined at Lai’s residence, he said, adding that relations with her were “very good.”
They remained friendly until Lai was dispatched to Italy in 2011, he said.
Castro drove hours to bid him farewell in person, putting him on the phone with Zelaya so he could thank Lai and Taiwan’s government for its support, Lai said.
Lai described the family’s stay at his house as an “act of trust.”
Castro’s daughter, Xiomara Zelaya, was a member of the diplomatic delegation Honduras dispatched to Beijing on Thursday to discuss the establishment of ties.
Castro on Tuesday last week wrote on Twitter that her country was considering diplomatic relations with China, but Honduras has not officially established ties with Beijing or severed them with Taipei.
Taiwan has yet to receive official communication from Honduras ending diplomatic relations, and is continuing efforts to salvage ties with the country, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
Taiwan Railways Corp (TRC) today announced that Shin Kong Mitsukoshi has been selected as the preferred bidder to operate the Taipei Railway Station shopping mall, replacing the current operator, Breeze Development Co Ltd. Among eight qualified firms that delivered presentations and were evaluated by a review committee, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi was ranked first, while Breeze was named the runner-up, the rail company said in a statement. Contract negotiations are to proceed in accordance with regulations, it said, adding that if negotiations with the top bidder fail, it could invite the second-ranked applicant to enter talks. Breeze in a statement today expressed doubts over
RSS