Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) boasted yesterday that police riding a fleet of 37 Harley Davidsons protected her during her recent American visit and that the rumbling motorcycle escort was a sign that US-Taiwan ties are as good as ever.
Lu returned home yesterday from a two-week tour to Latin America that included brief stops in Las Vegas and San Francisco.
The trip was closely monitored in Taipei for any signs of strains in Taiwan's relationship with its most important friend.
US officials have recently complained that Taiwan has been unnecessarily provoking the nation's biggest rival, China.
Lu said at the airport yesterday that she was treated with dignity and a "high standard of safety protection" during her US stops.
She fondly recalled that police on 37 Harley Davidsons escorted her when she arrived in San Francisco on Sunday.
"You can all ease your minds," Lu said. "Ties between Washington and Taipei are as good as ever."
The rare recent US-Taiwan friction happened during the presidential campaign ahead of the March 20 election.
Lu and President Chen Shui-bian (
US leaders, including President George W. Bush, issued a stern warning to Chen to be more cautious and preserve the status quo with China.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
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The Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) yesterday announced a fundraising campaign to support survivors of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28, with two prayer events scheduled in Taipei and Taichung later this week. “While initial rescue operations have concluded [in Myanmar], many survivors are now facing increasingly difficult living conditions,” OCAC Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) told a news conference in Taipei. The fundraising campaign, which runs through May 31, is focused on supporting the reconstruction of damaged overseas compatriot schools, assisting students from Myanmar in Taiwan, and providing essential items, such as drinking water, food and medical supplies,
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