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.
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
CPBL players, cheerleaders and officials pose at a news conference in Taipei yesterday announcing the upcoming All-Star Game. This year’s CPBL All-Star Weekend is to be held at the Taipei Dome on July 19 and 20.
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a