Taiwan achieved its best performance by winning six medals, including two gold, during the 2004 Athens Paralympic Games, which held its closing ceremony yesterday. However, one of the most famous heroes of Taiwan's delegation is not an athlete but the Deputy Secretary-General of the Presidential Office James Huang (
Huang, 46-years-old, was promoted from the post of Presidential Office spokesman to his current job after President Chen Shui-bian's (
These 16 years of training in diplomacy became one of Huang's most valuable assets, because he developed excellent skills in countering China's pressures in the international arena.
During the 2001's Shanghai APEC meeting, Chen originally assigned former vice president Li Yuan-zu (
Even when Taiwan's representative delegation had arrived in Shanghai, they still had to negotiate with the Chinese government and were unable to break through China's blockade.
Later the Presidential Office disclosed that among the delegation, the key person who was able to think clearly and tactically was James Huang, who at the time was still a deputy section chief
"Though our delegation on the front lines was bullied in the negotiation process, Huang's quick responses and coordination of staff was the reason that the delegation was able to stay together. It could be descirbed as Huang's first triumphant battle, and was the reason that Chen decided to promote this professional and skillful bureaucrat to become the spokesperson for the presidential office," Premier Yu Shyi-kun said.
At the time, Yu was the secretary-general of the Presidential Office.
During the past three years, Huang passed numerous tests to win the trust of not only the first family, but also Vice President Annette Lu (
During the Athens Paralympic Games, Huang served as the commander of the delegation, instead of a technical staff member. Huang made all of the decisions during the negotiations with the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), and ultimately ensured Wu's dignity and the delegation's rights were protected.
"China's tactics this time were to try to lock up the first lady inside Taiwan, or failing that, inside the hotel in Athens, silencing her voice and making her invisible. But we were able to come out of that, our goal was achieved and we outsmarted China's tactic," Huang told the Taipei Times.
The first lady led Taiwan's delegation to Athens on Sept. 11, and returned to Taiwan on Sept. 20. During her 10-day trip, an IPC spokesman admitted during an interview with Agence France Presse that it suffered pressure from China.
The IPC asked Wu to stop all public activities and even tried to cancel Wu's National Paralympics Committee (NPC) card, which is a top-class VIP card given to the heads of National Paralympics delegations.
"However, the IPC made many tactical mistakes, and on the contrary, we completely defended our bottom line by being well prepared with all bargaining chips," Huang said.
"When we arrived in Athens, the IPC began threatening to take back the first lady's NPC card as well as canceling her qualifications as the Taiwanese delegation's head. I wrote letters to the IPC every day to strongly express our protests," Huang said. "I think that we won because we displayed our resolution and also made the effort of avoiding making damages to IPC's reputation."
The turning point for the deadlock between the IPC and the delegation on how to recognize Wu was a meeting on Sept. 26 between Huang and IPC officials.
"I told them that I will hold an international press conference and publicize all the documents the IPC gave us, to prove how the IPC inappropriately interfered with Taiwan's rights and was reckless in its treatment of a wheelchair-bound lady," Huang said
"I made a concession promising that I would not proceed with the official procedure of confirming Wu's NPC card, which meant that the IPC could tell China it canceled our card, but the conditions are that IPC could not question Wu's position as Taiwan delegation's head nor block or interfere with all of Wu's public appearances," Huang said.
The IPC accepted Huang's suggestion, which ultimately ensured that the first lady accomplished a successful mission and the IPC also had an excuse to interact with China.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS