President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday praised the landmark visit to the US capital by his wife Wu Shu-chen (吳淑珍) saying that the first lady's achievements in successfully expanding Taiwan's international visibility had set an example for all Taiwanese women and disabled people in the fight for the country's diplomatic status.
"Her performance proves that women are by no means frail," said Chen.
"What she has done is much better than I, the head of state, have ever done," he said.
Chen stressed that Wu and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), who paid a surprise visit to Indonesia last month, both exercised Taiwan's "soft power" which could be used to counter tough pressure from China.
"Our friends in the US and the international community can learn of Taiwan's development from authoritarianism to democracy via the first lady's personal explanation," the president said.
"Though I was really worried about my wife's physical condition before she left, worries which sadly proved well-founded during the trip, I want to thank those compatriots who supported her and who ... helped the first lady accomplished her mission successfully," Chen said.
After the 11-day diplomatic trip to three major US cities, the wheelchair-bound Wu returned to Taiwan at midnight Sunday. She was originally scheduled to hold a press conference yesterday to talk about her achievements on the trip. On the advice of doctors, however, Wu decided to stay home and rest.
Chen, accompanied by Lu, Minister of Foreign Affairs Eugene Chien (簡又新) and other high-ranking officials, praised the first lady warmly. Chen took it upon himself to explain the diplomatic significance of her visit.
``She cannot stand on her own feet, but she used a wheelchair to push Taiwan to the United States, to Washington,'' Chen said of his wife, who has been confined to a wheelchair for 17 years after a politically motivated traffic "accident" during the martial law era.
Given Wu's bold example there was no reason why other Taiwanese should be either pessimistic or lacking in energy in pursuing Taiwan's diplomatic goals, Chen said.
Lu said that Wu's performance again showed how Taiwanese women helped their husbands, especially those who were political dissidents, to work for political reform.
"Despite Beijing's suppression and her physical pain, Wu, on behalf of her husband, created a landmark for Taiwan's diplomatic history by deploying her iron-will to complete the trip," Lu said.
"I hope that the first lady takes good care of herself," Lu added, "because she may choose to run for the presidency or the vice presidency" in future.
Lu said, however, that "wife diplomacy" should not be developed as a normal foreign policy method; the goal was after all that the president himself should be able to go anywhere in the world as he pleases, not as China allows.
The visit was the first to Washington by the wife of a Taiwanese leader.
"With the first lady's US trip, Taiwan people can now walk with their heads up high," said Chen Shih-meng (陳師孟), secretary general to the president, "and we can say that this is a most dignified moment for all Taiwanese, while Taiwan's democratic achievements will be acknowledged by more countries."
A highlight of the visit was a unanimous vote by the US House of Representatives to welcome Wu, and she was warmly greeted by at least 20 congressmen, including bipartisan congressional leaders, at a Capitol Hill reception.
In Washington, which is off-limits to her husband due to a lack of diplomatic ties and pressure from China, Wu also met with senior US government officials, among them Undersecretary for International Security Affairs John Bolton, a noted supporter of Taiwan.
Deputy Secretary General to the President Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), who accompanied Wu on her visit, said during yesterday's news conference that Wu not only completed all the designated goals of her trip -- including increasing Taiwan's international visibility and publicizing Taiwan's democratic achievements and contribution to the global anti-terrorism campaign -- but she also successfully delivered Taiwan's goodwill to US friends, which obviously had upgraded the relations between two countries.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS