Some of the arrangements for Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou's (
Ma is scheduled to arrive in New York tomorrow, and will travel through Boston, Washington, San Francisco and Los Angeles. He is scheduled to return to Taipei on March 29.
During the trip, Ma will deliver several speeches on cross-strait relations, as well as Taiwan-US relations, and talk to overseas students and business representatives.
Ma is scheduled to deliver a speech entitled "A Vision for Peace and Prosperity" at Harvard University, his alma mater, on March 21.
Taiwanese student organizations have expressed criticism of this event.
The event at Harvard will be co-hosted by the New England Taiwanese Students' Association, Harvard Taiwanese Students' Association and the Harvard Taiwanese Association.
According to a Taiwanese student, event sponsors require audience members who want to ask questions during the Q&A session to put their questions in writing in advance.
The student questioned why the KMT chairman would not be fielding impromptu questions, saying and that Ma might be worried about being asked about his stance on cross-strait policy.
Ma's recent remarks about cross-strait relations have been contradictory, the student said.
In addition, a US scholar known for her astute observation of the US Congress, slammed Ma for not meeting with any US congressmen during his visit to the US.
According to the scholar, the four co-chairmen of the US Congressional Taiwan Caucus had invited Ma to visit the US, yet Ma chose to visit Washington while Congress is in recess, and has not arranged any meetings with Congress members.
In view of Congress' seemingly decreasing support for Taiwan, it is unbelievable that Ma, as the leader of Taiwan's biggest opposition party, chose to ignore the US Congress during his visit, said the scholar, who wished to remain anonymous.
During Ma's stay in Washington on March 22, he will meet the mayor, Anthony Williams.
He will also meet expatriate groups and representatives from the high-tech industry.
On March 23, Ma will address the National Press Club, as well as numerous think tanks including the AEI, the Heritage Foundation and the Brookings Institution. Ma is also scheduled to meet with editors from the Washington Post and US-Taiwan Business Council.
While there are no plans for the KMT chairman to meet with Congress members in the official schedule, it remains unknown if he will use his spare time during his two-day stay in Washington to meet with Congress members in private.
Civil society groups yesterday protested outside the Legislative Yuan, decrying Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) efforts to pass three major bills that they said would seriously harm Taiwan’s democracy, and called to oust KMT caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁). It was the second night of the three-day “Bluebird wintertime action” protests in Taipei, with organizers announcing that 8,000 people attended. Organized by Taiwan Citizen Front, the Economic Democracy Union (EDU) and a coalition of civil groups, about 6,000 people began a demonstration in front of KMT party headquarters in Taipei on Wednesday, organizers said. For the third day, the organizers asked people to assemble
POOR IMPLEMENTATION: Teachers welcomed the suspension, saying that the scheme disrupted school schedules, quality of learning and the milk market A policy to offer free milk to all school-age children nationwide is to be suspended next year due to multiple problems arising from implementation of the policy, the Executive Yuan announced yesterday. The policy was designed to increase the calcium intake of school-age children in Taiwan by drinking milk, as more than 80 percent drink less than 240ml per day. The recommended amount is 480ml. It was also implemented to help Taiwanese dairy farmers counter competition from fresh milk produced in New Zealand, which is to be imported to Taiwan tariff-free next year when the Agreement Between New Zealand and
A woman who allegedly spiked the food and drinks of an Australian man with rat poison, leaving him in intensive care, has been charged with attempted murder, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. The woman, identified by her surname Yang (楊), is accused of repeatedly poisoning Alex Shorey over the course of several months last year to prevent the Australian man from leaving Taiwan, prosecutors said in a statement. Shorey was evacuated back to Australia on May 3 last year after being admitted to intensive care in Taiwan. According to prosecutors, Yang put bromadiolone, a rodenticide that prevents blood from
China is likely to focus on its economy over the next four years and not set a timetable for attempting to annex Taiwan, a researcher at Beijing’s Tsinghua University wrote in an article published in Foreign Affairs magazine on Friday. In the article titled “Why China isn’t scared of Trump: US-Chinese tensions may rise, but his isolationism will help Beijing,” Chinese international studies researcher Yan Xuetong (閻學通) wrote that the US and China are unlikely to go to war over Taiwan in the next four years under US president-elect Donald Trump. While economic and military tensions between the US and China would
RSS