A delegation of eight cross-party lawmakers led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) is to attend the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump on Jan. 20, Taiwan’s top diplomat said yesterday.
Han’s delegation is to comprise three lawmakers from each of the two major parties — the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) — and one from the smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said.
The delegation is to depart for the US on Jan. 18 for Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, and would stay until Jan. 24, the legislature said.
Photo: Chen Yi-kuan, Taipei Times
While Lin did not name the other members of Han’s delegation, the legislature on Saturday last week released the names of five lawmakers who would accompany the speaker: Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) and Chen Kuang-ting (陳冠廷) of the DPP, Lee Yen-hsiu (李彥秀) and Ko Ju-chun (葛如鈞) of the KMT, and Chen Gau-tzu (陳昭姿) of the TPP.
Since then, it has been decided that another two legislators — one each from the DPP and KMT — would be included in the delegation, Lin said yesterday without naming them.
The list of delegates would be confirmed by the legislature’s USA Caucus, a group that promotes parliamentarian exchanges between Taiwan and the US, Lin said.
The cross-party delegation would extend congratulations to the new Trump administration on behalf of the Taiwan government, he added.
On Wednesday, President William Lai (賴清德) commented on the selection of the delegation members, saying that as part of his efforts to promote unity, he had invited Han, a senior member of the opposition KMT, to lead the official Taiwan delegation to Trump’s inauguration.
Lai said it was part of his job as president to resolve partisan differences and push for a unified nation in the interest of social stability and economic development.
In recent years, Taiwan’s delegations to US presidential inauguration ceremonies have been led by legislative speakers.
In 2009 and 2013, the delegations were led by then-speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), while in 2017, then-speaker You Si-kun (游錫?) headed the Taiwan delegation to Trump’s first inauguration.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Taiwan did not send a delegation from Taipei to US President Joe Biden’s inauguration in January 2021, but was represented instead by then-representative to the US Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴), who is now vice president.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by