Vice President Annette Lu (
Lu, who arrived in Houston Saturday evening for a three-day transit stay en route to a Central America diplomatic tour that will take her to El Salvador and Guatemala, made the appeal in a speech delivered at a dinner given in her honor by major Taiwanese associations in Texas.
The dinner happened to coincide with the passage of the "anti-secession" law by China's rubber-stamp parliament -- the National People's Congress -- in Beijing before the conclusion of its 10-day annual plenary session.
Lu said the legislation is actually a "war authorization law."
Lu said the law is "not a law," but rather a political statement aimed at forcing Taiwan to accept its "one China" principle as the ultimate means to unification.
By enacting the law, Lu said, Beijing has unequivocally revealed a move to unilaterally alter the status quo across the Taiwan Strait.
As China is a member of the UN Security Council, Lu said, the UN should condemn China over its stark violation of the UN Charter, which she said bans the use of force in resolving international disputes.
The vice president also urged the US to show moral courage by denouncing the "anti-secession" law, which Lu said runs against the fundamental US premise of a peaceful solution to cross-strait disputes under which it established diplomatic ties with China in 1979.
On Sunday, Lu had lunch with a group of pro-Taiwan lawmakers at a Texas-style steakhouse in downtown Houston visited by President Chen Shui-bian (
Later in the day, she attended a rodeo at Reliant Park -- the world's largest cowboy showground and American football stadium.
Lu was accorded high-level courtesies, circling around the giant stadium aboard an open-topped limousine and being introduced to a full house as "Taiwan's vice president."
Wearing a cowboy hat, Lu waved to the crowd and received a resounding two-minute welcome. Many Taiwanese expatriates were surprised and excited by Lu's unexpected appearance. The show was also broadcast live to 52 countries.
Meanwhile, China's consulate in Houston mobilized a group of Chinese expatriates and students in Texas to demonstrate outside the restaurant where Lu dined with representatives of the Taiwanese community in the southern US state.
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
The 2025 Kaohsiung Wonderland–Winter Amusement Park event has teamed up with the Japanese manga series Chiikawa this year for its opening at Love River Bay yesterday, attracting more than 10,000 visitors, the city government said. Following the success of the “2024 Kaohsiung Wonderland” collaboration with a giant inflatable yellow duck installation designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, this year the Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau collaborated with Chiikawa by Japanese illustrator Nagano to present two giant inflatable characters. Two inflatable floats — the main character, Chiikwa, a white bear-like creature with round ears, and Hachiware, a white cat with a blue-tipped tail
RSS