A Taiwan-born American naval officer will become a spokeswoman for the US Pacific Command starting in July, military sources announced on Friday.
Jensin W. Sommer (
She said in an interview that she will be very pleased to take her new assignment in Hawaii next month.
"Hawaii is closer to Taiwan, where I still have many relatives," said Sommer, who is now a naval press officer at the US Department of Defense.
Sommer graduated from the US Naval Academy 10 years ago and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant commander on Friday.
She also just received a master's degree in political science from a Catholic university in Washington, DC earlier this week.
Sommer's father, Weng Yi-hsiung (
"Jensin was always impressed by the brilliance and smartness of the white uniforms of the female cadets.
"This might be a reason behind her decision to pursue a military career," said Weng, who works for the public health department of the Maryland State Government.
Weng originally took part in a US Navy-sponsored subtropical disease research program in Taiwan.
In 1976, he went to the US for advanced study on a US Navy scholarship and later obtained US residency.
Sommer said she was lucky to have grown up in the US, adding that she chose a military career partly out of her wish to contribute to the country.
Her husband is also a naval academy graduate.
She further said she has fond memories of her childhood in Taiwan and that part of her mind and heart "will be left in Taiwan" forever.
Sommer said she is always very happy whenever she reads or hears of information about Taiwan.
"I also take pride in Taiwan's progress in various fields in recent years," she added.
In the future, she said she hopes she can do something to help boost Taiwan-US relations.
She last visited her Taiwan relatives in 1994.
While Sommer was studying at the US Naval Academy, she and several of her classmates also once paid a visit to Taiwan which was arranged by Taiwan's naval authorities.
‘DANGEROUS GAME’: Legislative Yuan budget cuts have already become a point of discussion for Democrats and Republicans in Washington, Elbridge Colby said Taiwan’s fall to China “would be a disaster for American interests” and Taipei must raise defense spending to deter Beijing, US President Donald Trump’s pick to lead Pentagon policy, Elbridge Colby, said on Tuesday during his US Senate confirmation hearing. The nominee for US undersecretary of defense for policy told the Armed Services Committee that Washington needs to motivate Taiwan to avoid a conflict with China and that he is “profoundly disturbed” about its perceived reluctance to raise defense spending closer to 10 percent of GDP. Colby, a China hawk who also served in the Pentagon in Trump’s first team,
SEPARATE: The MAC rebutted Beijing’s claim that Taiwan is China’s province, asserting that UN Resolution 2758 neither mentions Taiwan nor grants the PRC authority over it The “status quo” of democratic Taiwan and autocratic China not belonging to each other has long been recognized by the international community, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday in its rebuttal of Beijing’s claim that Taiwan can only be represented in the UN as “Taiwan, Province of China.” Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) yesterday at a news conference of the third session at the 14th National People’s Congress said that Taiwan can only be referred to as “Taiwan, Province of China” at the UN. Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory, which is not only history but
CROSSED A LINE: While entertainers working in China have made pro-China statements before, this time it seriously affected the nation’s security and interests, a source said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) late on Saturday night condemned the comments of Taiwanese entertainers who reposted Chinese statements denigrating Taiwan’s sovereignty. The nation’s cross-strait affairs authority issued the statement after several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑), Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜) and Michelle Chen (陳妍希), on Friday and Saturday shared on their respective Sina Weibo (微博) accounts a post by state broadcaster China Central Television. The post showed an image of a map of Taiwan along with the five stars of the Chinese flag, and the message: “Taiwan is never a country. It never was and never will be.” The post followed remarks
INVESTMENT WATCH: The US activity would not affect the firm’s investment in Taiwan, where 11 production lines would likely be completed this year, C.C. Wei said Investments by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) in the US should not be a cause for concern, but rather seen as the moment that the company and Taiwan stepped into the global spotlight, President William Lai (賴清德) told a news conference at the Presidential Office in Taipei yesterday alongside TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家). Wei and US President Donald Trump in Washington on Monday announced plans to invest US$100 billion in the US to build three advanced foundries, two packaging plants, and a research and development center, after Trump threatened to slap tariffs on chips made
RSS