US Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is slated to lead a delegation to travel to Asia tomorrow which includes Taipei as one of the stops.
The visit will be the first time in decades that Taiwan has received such a high-level US congressional leader.
The outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), however, has added uncertainty to the delegation's visit, sources said.
"Right now, everything is still on schedule," said an assistant to Senator Susan Collins, a member of the delegation, by phone on Tuesday afternoon in Washington.
"They are undecided about China," the source added.
The delegation, which includes Frist and seven other senators along with their families and staffers, is scheduled to take a US Air Force jet to Beijing and Shanghai today, before visiting South Korea, Taiwan and Japan, sources in Taipei and Washington said.
The delegation is scheduled to reach Taipei on April 18 for a whirlwind 24-hour visit.
The senators are slated to meet with high-ranking officials including President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), government sources said.
The trip, if completed, will mark the first time since 1985 a US Senate majority leader has visited Taiwan.
Then Senate majority leader Bob Dole visited Taipei in 1985 after the veteran Republican figure was elected to his post in the Senate in November of the previous year.
Officials said Frist's planned visit to Taipei should mark a significant milestone in Taipei-Washington relations.
"Despite the longstanding friendship between Taiwan and the US Congress, it's rare for us to see the visit of such a high-level US congressional leader in Taipei," said a Presidential Office official who declined to be named.
"The visit symbolizes the US emphasis on its relations with Taiwan, especially at a time when the US itself is busy with the war against Iraq, not to mention the threat from SARS," the official said.
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), which government officials said is in charge of arranging the delegation's itinerary in Taipei, did not deny nor confirm the delegation's visit yesterday.
Judith Mudd-Krijgelmans, spokesperson for AIT's Taipei office, said she could not confirm the scheduled visit to Taipei by the US congressional delegation.
A former heart and lung transplant specialist, Frist is the only physician currently serving in the US Congress.
The Harvard-educated physician joined the Senate eight years ago, representing Tennessee.
He was recently elected to replace Trent Lott, who stepped down as majority leader last December after making some comments that were taken as supporting racism.
Other key senators in the delegation include Susan Collins of Maine, who serves as the chairperson of the Senate's Government Affairs Committee and Don Nickles, who is the chairman of the Senate's Budget Committee.
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS