Taiwan is consulting Washington on the appointment of its next representative to the US, Taipei's deputy representative to the US Tung Kuo-yu (董國猷) said on Friday.
Tung said he expected the US government’s response would come soon, adding that the name of the candidate would not be made public until all the procedures are completed.
Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), the incumbent representative to the US and a non-career diplomat who was appointed to the post by the former Democratic Progressive Party administration, tendered his resignation on May 20 upon the inauguration of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration.
The vacancy would reportedly be filled by Jason Yuan (袁健生), who has served as the KMT’s and the People First Party’s (PFP) representative to the US since 2004. Yuan formerly served as director-general of Taiwan’s Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) in Los Angeles.
Chang Ta-tung (張大同), the KMT and PFP’s deputy representative to the US, would allegedly be appointed deputy representative. Chang was formerly chief of the Congressional Liaison Division at the TECRO office in the US.
In related news, TECRO in Washington held a Starlight Film Screening on the main lawn of the Twin Oaks estate on Friday night to celebrate the 120th anniversary of the former residence of Republic of China ambassadors.
More than 200 people attended the screening of Fishing Luck, a story of a young woman from Taipei and an indigenous Tao youth from Orchid Island (蘭嶼). The film was directed by Golden Horse-award-winning Taiwanese director Tseng Wen-chen (曾文珍).
The second night of the outdoor film screening, scheduled for yesterday, was to feature the film Chocolate Rap by noted Taiwanese director Chi Y. Lee.
Among those in attendance at the screening on Friday were Wu, Taiwanese students studying in the area and other young overseas Taiwanese.
Bi Tzu-an (畢祖安), secretary of TECRO’s Cultural Division, said that many young Taiwanese jumped at the opportunity upon hearing about the screening, with one group driving more than four hours from West Virginia to attend.
Several Americans in attendance praised the event as a creative approach to cultural exchange and said they hoped similar events would be held in future.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
EVERYONE’S ISSUE: Kim said that during a visit to Taiwan, she asked what would happen if China attacked, and was told that the global economy would shut down Taiwan is critical to the global economy, and its defense is a “here and now” issue, US Representative Young Kim said during a roundtable talk on Taiwan-US relations on Friday. Kim, who serves on the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, held a roundtable talk titled “Global Ties, Local Impact: Why Taiwan Matters for California,” at Santiago Canyon College in Orange County, California. “Despite its small size and long distance from us, Taiwan’s cultural and economic importance is felt across our communities,” Kim said during her opening remarks. Stanford University researcher and lecturer Lanhee Chen (陳仁宜), lawyer Lin Ching-chi
A pro-Russia hacker group has launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the Taiwanese government in retaliation for President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments suggesting that China should have a territorial dispute with Russia, an information security company said today. The hacker group, NoName057, recently launched an HTTPs flood attack called “DDoSia” targeting Taiwanese government and financial units, Radware told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). Local tax bureaus in New Taipei City, Keelung, Hsinchu and Taoyuan were mentioned by the hackers. Only the Hsinchu Local Tax Bureau site appeared to be down earlier in the day, but was back