A leading supporter of Taiwan in the US House of Representatives has proposed that a prominent Taiwanese-American scientist be selected to join the US delegation to a special technical briefing on SARS planned by the World Health Organization (WHO) next week.
Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, co-chairman of the Congressional Taiwan Caucus and Congress' leading promoter of Taiwan's role in the WHO, sent a letter Thursday to Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, urging him to allow the scientist, Dr. Michael Lai (賴明詔), to attend the meeting.
Lai, a world-renowned biologist, is professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at the University of South California. He is one of the pioneer scientists in the US in the field of coronaviruses, which researchers have determined are the cause of SARS.
Brown requested that Lai be included in the US delegation to the World Health Assembly so he can attend the briefing.
"Dr. Lai is familiar with Taiwan's SARS situation and has the ability to share detailed knowledge of the medical advances Taiwan has made so far," Brown said in the letter.
"Dr. Lai is a renowned authority and a pioneer in the study of coronavirus, which is associated with SARS.
"He has characterized steps to coronavirus replication during the past 25 years and discovered the phenomenon of RNA recombination, which is linked to coronavirus evolution," Brown said.
"He authored a chapter on the coronavirus in the Fields Virology textbook. His views on SARS have been widely quoted in numerous major publications and news media since the advent of the epidemic," he said.
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
TRUMP ERA: The change has sparked speculation on whether it was related to the new US president’s plan to dismiss more than 1,000 Joe Biden-era appointees The US government has declined to comment on a post that indicated the departure of Laura Rosenberger as chair of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). Neither the US Department of State nor the AIT has responded to the Central News Agency’s questions on the matter, after Rosenberger was listed as a former chair on the AIT’s official Web site, with her tenure marked as 2023 to this year. US officials have said previously that they usually do not comment on personnel changes within the government. Rosenberger was appointed head of the AIT in 2023, during the administration of former US president Joe
ON PAROLE: The 73-year-old suspect has a criminal record of rape committed when he was serving in the military, as well as robbery and theft, police said The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday approved the detention of a 73-year-old man for allegedly murdering three women. The suspect, surnamed Chang (張), was arrested on Wednesday evening in connection with the death of a 71-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙). The Kaohsiung City Police Department yesterday also unveiled the identities of two other possible victims in the serial killing case, a 75-year-old woman surnamed Huang (黃), the suspect’s sister-in-law, and a 75-year-old woman surnamed Chang (張), who is not related to the suspect. The case came to light when Chao disappeared after taking the suspect back to his residence on Sunday. Police, upon reviewing CCTV
RSS