Although retired diplomat William Yui (
So when the 38-year-old Yui received the Outstanding Diplomat Award yesterday, the first such prize presented by the Executive Yuan, together with 10 other winners from various government units, his smile betrayed his emotions.
The awards ceremony was held at the Executive Yuan yesterday morning and followed by a similar event at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the afternoon.
PHOTO: LIAO CHENG-HUI, TAIPEI TIMES
The older Yui has encouraged his son, now a section chief at the ministry in charge of Central American affairs, to work on the diplomatic front line, where he sees relations between Taipei and Beijing as the real battlefield.
Other award winners agreed that the action lies in handling relations with China.
"Beijing's obstruction has been the top stumbling block to the enhancement of ties between Taipei and Washington," said Harry Tseng (
Tseng said he and his coworkers at Taiwan's de facto embassy in Washington had to "fight in close quarters" with their counterparts from Beijing when stationed in the US.
Tseng, now one of the president's English-Chinese interpreters, joined the ministry in 1985 and left his work four years later to pursue a PhD at the University of Virginia. In 1993, Tseng was encouraged by his superior, David Lee (李大維), now Taiwan's top representative to Brussels, to return to the ministry.
After the ceremony at the ministry, the veteran diplomat Lee grasped Tseng by the shoulders as a gesture of encouragement.
At the ceremony, Minister of Foreign Affairs Eugene Chien (
The 11 recipients were handpicked by an 11-member committee out of 24 short-listed civil servants from 18 government units which have dispatched personnel overseas, Chien said.
On behalf of the award winners, Lee, who was honored for his work in enhancing ties between Taiwan and the EU, expressed his gratitude for the recipients' colleagues, their spouses and their supervisors.
"Many colleagues have worked harder than us. We were just luckier," Tseng said.
Lin Sheng-chung (
"The credit shouldn't be taken by any single individual for Taiwan's WTO accession as countless civil servants were involved in the decades-long preparations and negotiations," Lin said.
Other award winners included Pascal Liu (
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