Premier Frank Hsieh (
"Vancouver's people will be more than happy to share their experiences of hosting the Olympic Games with Taiwanese people for sure, if there is a chance," Campbell said. "In addition, the city shall support Taiwan for its future application to host the Olympics."
Campbell made the remarks during a meeting with Hsieh yesterday morning.
Vancouver will host the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. Another Canadian city, Calgary, hosted the winter games in 1988, while Montreal hosted the 1976 Olympic Games.
Campbell said there are many advantages to hosting the Olympic Games.
"It [the Olympics] creates a lot of job opportunities, sparks local business and ... the Olympic facilities will become local residents' playgrounds afterwards," Campbell said.
Later in the day the premier met with Chi, who is a former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmaker and the winner of the bronze medal in the 80m hurdles at the 1968 Mexico Olympic Games.
Hsieh, calling Chi Taiwan's "national treasure," said she would be the ideal candidate to promote Taiwan's bid to apply to host the 2020 Olympic Games.
Chi affirmed the premier's idea to apply to host the games. She also urged Taiwanese people to believe in themselves.
Using a proverb to expresses the idea that a situation is difficult but still has hope, Chi said: "I think the premier's idea is a ray of light through the valley, but we should be confident in ourselves and believe that we can make it."
When he was asked how Taiwan would respond if China proposed that Beijing and Taipei co-host the 2020 Olympics, the premier didn't say anything and smiled.
Chi, however, dismissed the idea.
"China and Taiwan are both International Olympic Committee [IOC] members but their memberships are separate. In the past, there has never been a situation in which two IOC members co-hosted the Olympics. As a result, I think it is quite impossible," Chi said.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Mark Chen (
"When it comes to votes, Taiwan cannot do anything about it because it requires international support. The more the better," Chen said. "But we can and will keep working on that [diplomacy]."
The Olympic issue began to develop on Wednesday morning, when Hsieh suddenly mentioned that Taiwan should apply to host the Olympic Games.
In the 24 hours since his announcement, his idea has come under criticism, but he brushed this aside.
"I think my fellow Taiwanese should work hand in hand on this issue. I do not understand why such an issue would become the target for political attacks," Hsieh said.
A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck off Tainan at 11:47am today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 32.3km northeast of Tainan City Hall at a depth of 7.3km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Tainan and Chiayi County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and County, and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Kaohsiung, Nantou County, Changhua County, Taitung County and offshore Penghu County, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of
Weather conditions across Taiwan are expected to remain stable today, but cloudy to rainy skies are expected from tomorrow onward due to increasing moisture in the atmosphere, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). Daytime highs today are expected to hit 25-27°C in western Taiwan and 22-24°C in the eastern counties of Yilan, Hualien, and Taitung, data on the CWA website indicated. After sunset, temperatures could drop to 16-17°C in most parts of Taiwan. For tomorrow, precipitation is likely in northern Taiwan as a cloud system moves in from China. Daytime temperatures are expected to hover around 25°C, the CWA said. Starting Monday, areas
A Taiwanese software developer has created a generative artificial intelligence (AI) model to help people use AI without exposing sensitive data, project head Huang Chung-hsiao (黃崇校) said yesterday. Huang, a 55-year-old coder leading a US-based team, said that concerns over data privacy and security in popular generative AIs such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek motivated him to develop a personal AI assistant named “Mei.” One of the biggest security flaws with cloud-based algorithms is that users are required to hand over personal information to access the service, giving developers the opportunity to mine user data, he said. For this reason, many government agencies and
Taiwan has recorded its first fatal case of Coxsackie B5 enterovirus in 10 years after a one-year-old boy from southern Taiwan died from complications early last month, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. CDC spokesman Lo Yi-chun (羅一鈞) told a news conference that the child initially developed a fever and respiratory symptoms before experiencing seizures and loss of consciousness. The boy was diagnosed with acute encephalitis and admitted to intensive care, but his condition deteriorated rapidly, and he passed away on the sixth day of illness, Lo said. This also marks Taiwan’s third enterovirus-related death this year and the first severe
RSS