The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday protested to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the party’s exclusion from the itinerary of a visiting US congressional delegation.
“Since the ministry did not inform the DPP of the visit, the DPP could not arrange a meeting between the delegation and DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌),” DPP spokesperson Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) said.
The ministry told the party it was a careless mistake and vowed that it would not happen again, Lin said.
According to a press release from the ministry, US Senator James Inhofe, who is co-chair of the US Senate Taiwan Caucus, led a 19-member delegation, including Senator John Boozman and US representatives Vern Buchanan, Erik Paulsen and Steve Pearce, on a visit to Taiwan on Tuesday and yesterday.
The delegation met President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), National Security Council Secretary-General Jason Yuan (袁健生) and Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平).
This was not the first time the DPP has made such complaint.
Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), executive director of the DPP’s Policy Research Committee and the party’s US representative, has recently mentioned several similar incidents.
Wu, who served as Taiwan’s representative to the US during the DPP administration, said the DPP administration always made sure that US delegations met with the then-opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) so that “visitors are able to listen to voices from both sides.”
Liu Shih-chung (劉世忠), director of the DPP’s Department of International Affairs, said the party learned of the visit from a newspaper report and has begun to inquire about future visits “so that we won’t be left out again.”
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
Former Taiwan People’s Party chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) may apply to visit home following the death of his father this morning, the Taipei Detention Center said. Ko’s father, Ko Cheng-fa (柯承發), passed away at 8:40am today at the Hsinchu branch of National Taiwan University Hospital. He was 94 years old. The center said Ko Wen-je was welcome to apply, but declined to say whether it had already received an application. The center also provides psychological counseling to people in detention as needed, it added, also declining to comment on Ko Wen-je’s mental state. Ko Wen-je is being held in detention as he awaits trial
RSS