On a visit to Taiwan yesterday, US Senior Official for APEC Ambassador Kurt Tong extended an invitation to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to attend the 19th APEC Leaders’ Meeting hosted by the US in Honolulu, Hawaii, on Nov. 12 and Nov. 13.
Speaking by telephone, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) spokesperson Sheila Paskman said that Tong had brought the invitation and that it was the same invitation that was being delivered to each APEC member state.
Despite an APEC practice to invite the president of each country to APEC leaders’ summits, Taiwan in the past has named a special envoy to attend on the president’s behalf because of opposition from Beijing.
Asked if the US would support Ma’s attendance this year, Paskman said: “It’s really up to the country to decide who to send [to the APEC Leaders’ Meeting].”
After delivering the invitation to the Presidential Office, Tong met with Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Hwang Chung-chiou (黃重球).
The AIT said in a press release that the US ambassador had discussed APEC matters, as well as issues related to US-Taiwan economic relations, with senior Taiwanese officials.
“Tong introduced a variety of issues relating to APEC, including upcoming high-level meetings to be held in San Francisco in September on energy and transportation issues, women and the economy, innovation and trade in technology, and health issues,” the AIT said.
In related news, the Chinese-language United Daily News (UDN) and the China Times yesterday reported that National Security Council Secretary-General Hu Wei-jen (胡為真) had recently paid a “low-profile” visit to the US.
The UDN said Hu had visited the US last week to press the US on the sale of F-16C/D aircraft and diesel-electric submarines, as well as upgrades to Taiwan’s F-16A/B aircraft.
At a regular media briefing, Bruce Linghu (令狐榮達), -director-general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of North American Affairs, did not confirm the reports.
“I am unaware of that,” Linghu said.
The F-16C/Ds, diesel-electric submarines and the upgrade package for the F-16A/Bs are priority issues in US-Taiwan relations, along with inclusion of Taiwan in the US visa-waiver program, an extradition agreement and the resumption of Trade and Investment Framework Agreement talks, he said.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it is fully aware of the situation following reports that the son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has arrived in Taiwan and is to marry a Taiwanese. Local media reported that Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), son of the former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is to marry the granddaughter of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital founder Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政). The pair met when studying abroad and arranged to get married this year, with the wedding breakfast to be held at The One holiday resort in Hsinchu
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
A road safety advocacy group yesterday called for reforms to the driver licensing and retraining system after a pedestrian was killed and 15 other people were injured in a two-bus collision in Taipei. “Taiwan’s driver’s licenses are among the easiest to obtain in the world, and there is no mandatory retraining system for drivers,” Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance, a group pushing to reduce pedestrian fatalities, said in a news release. Under the regulations, people who have held a standard car driver’s license for two years and have completed a driver training course are eligible to take a test
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