US Senator Tammy Duckworth is in Taiwan on her fourth visit since becoming a member of Congress in 2017, during which she is to meet with President William Lai (賴清德) and other top officials to exchange views on regional security issues, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
During her brief stay until tomorrow, Duckworth is to also meet with Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) and Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍), and visit various agencies to discuss defense, economic and cross-strait issues, the ministry said in a news release.
Photo: CNA
Duckworth, an Iraq War veteran, Purple Heart recipient and former assistant secretary of the US Department of Veterans Affairs, last visited Taiwan in May last year soon after Lai and Hsiao were sworn in as Taiwan's new president and vice president.
She also announced a US donation of COVID-19 vaccines to Taiwan during her June 2021 visit, when Taiwan was in desperate need of vaccines at the height of the pandemic, the ministry said, praising her as a staunch supporter of Taiwan.
Duckworth's visit means there are currently three US delegations in Taiwan, the others being a delegation from the House of Representatives led by House Committee on Natural Resources Chairman Bruce Westerman and one led by Guam Governor Lourdes A Leon Guerrero.
The American Institute in Taiwan said in a separate news release today that Duckworth's group is visiting Taiwan as part of a larger visit to the Indo-Pacific region.
"The delegation will engage in a series of high-level meetings with senior Taiwan leaders to discuss US-Taiwan relations, regional security, trade and investment, and other significant issues of mutual interest," it said.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is pushing for residents of Kinmen and Lienchiang counties to acquire Chinese ID cards in a bid to “blur national identities,” a source said. The efforts are part of China’s promotion of a “Kinmen-Xiamen twin-city living sphere, including a cross-strait integration pilot zone in China’s Fujian Province,” the source said. “The CCP is already treating residents of these outlying islands as Chinese citizens. It has also intensified its ‘united front’ efforts and infiltration of those islands,” the source said. “There is increasing evidence of espionage in Kinmen, particularly of Taiwanese military personnel being recruited by the
ENTERTAINERS IN CHINA: Taiwanese generally back the government being firm on infiltration and ‘united front’ work,’ the Asia-Pacific Elite Interchange Association said Most people support the government probing Taiwanese entertainers for allegedly “amplifying” the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda, a survey conducted by the Asia-Pacific Elite Interchange Association showed on Friday. Public support stood at 56.4 percent for action by the Mainland Affairs Council and the Ministry of Culture to enhance scrutiny on Taiwanese performers and artists who have developed careers in China while allegedly adhering to the narrative of Beijing’s propaganda that denigrates or harms Taiwanese sovereignty, the poll showed. Thirty-three percent did not support the action, it showed. The poll showed that 51.5 percent of respondents supported the government’s investigation into Taiwanese who have
Left-Handed Girl (左撇子女孩), a film by Taiwanese director Tsou Shih-ching (鄒時擎) and cowritten by Oscar-winning director Sean Baker, won the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution at the Cannes Critics’ Week on Wednesday. The award, which includes a 20,000 euro (US$22,656) prize, is intended to support the French release of a first or second feature film by a new director. According to Critics’ Week, the prize would go to the film’s French distributor, Le Pacte. "A melodrama full of twists and turns, Left-Handed Girl retraces the daily life of a single mother and her two daughters in Taipei, combining the irresistible charm of
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
RSS