First lady Wu Shu-chen (
"If I knew anything about diplomacy, then I would have asked the president to appoint me minister of foreign affairs long ago," she joked recently.
PHOTO: CHU PEI-HSIUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Wu has has become adept at complementing the conservative traditions of the foreign ministry's bureaucratic system with her straightforward and humorous style.
While President Chen Shui-bian (
Former Government Information Office director Arthur Iap (
"She also knows how to create suitable news topics for the media, and play along with media requests," he said. She is also smart enough to know how far each side in a negotiation will give ground and has thoroughly mastered the art of crisis management, he said.
"When Wu Shu-chen visited the US last year and Europe this time, she always makes jokes about how she feels helpless during the long and complicated rituals of a diplomatic occasion," said Joseph Wu (
"Like during a dinner party hosted by Taiwan's ambassador to the Vatican in Rome, when the soprano's performance lasted more than half an hour.
"Even though she sang really well, the exhausted and starving Taiwanese delegates were in no mood to appreciate her performance.
"In the end, Wu came to their rescue when she gave her speech, saying, `When the soprano was singing, my stomach was singing too.'
"Her joke immediately soothed the tension and gloom among the delegation," he said.
Wu also has a knack of dealing with the media, understanding their varying needs while maintaining her status.
On a visit to a part of the Berlin Wall with the words "A-bian will surely win" daubed on it, she cooperated with the photographers even though it was very hot.
But she spoke only about the Taiwanese people, mentioning nothing about the presidential election next year.
"And when she was in the presence of our international friends in Berlin, as well as stressing the importance of her visit in boosting the relationship between Taiwan and Germany, she also talked about future developments between Taiwan and Europe. She highlighted the role of her trip to Germany as `a key to Europe,' bestowing her visit with a deeper meaning," said Hu Wei-chen (
When it comes to her mastery of crisis management, her visit to the US last year provided an excellent example. After she was unexpectedly searched at Los Angeles airport, Wu's immediate response was described by an accompanying diplomats as "grabbing the US government by the throat and making them pay what they should diplomatically."
The diplomat said afterwards that the skill the first lady demonstrated when negotiating with the US officials could almost become a textbook example for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Wu was tough and soft at the same time, showing respect to the US officials but insisting on her bottom line.
Her performance turned the crisis into the stimulus for the further development of the relationship between Taiwan and the US. The incident resulted in the first contact between the top-level officials from Taiwan and the US, the diplomat said.
"The first lady suffered, but she helped the president and top-level officials make a diplomatic breakthrough," he said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty