More than a score of US Congress members attended a Wednesday night reception to welcome Democratic Progressive Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to Capitol Hill.
Veteran observers of the US-Taiwan scene said that it was the most enthusiastic and warm reception they could remember for a Taiwanese visitor.
“The atmosphere was utterly new, everyone was talking about how the attitudes in Washington have completely changed,” one guest said.
Photo: Chen Hui-ping, Taipei Times
“Dr Tsai had a look of confidence and satisfaction — congressmen and women were bubbling,” he added.
Despite a busy agenda and on-going vote in the US House of Representatives, members lined up to shake Tsai’s hand and complement her on becoming the DPP’s presidential candidate for the January elections.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce and ranking member Eliot Engel both made short speeches saying how pleased they were to see Tsai in Washington.
While it was not clear exactly how many members actually came to the reception — 16 made public remarks — more than 30 had said they planned to be there.
Former House Foreign Affairs Committee chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen praised Tsai and her “quest to keep Taiwan free.”
The freedom of Taiwan had been continuously threatened for decades by “an oppressive and brutal” communist regime in China, Ros-Lehtinen said.
“China is making its hegemonic ambitions crystal clear as it rapidly ramps up its military spending, creates new islands in the South China Sea, and attempts to assert dominance in the region,” she said.
“We in the United States need to do more to support our ally Taiwan and make sure it is able to resist any type of Chinese aggression or coercion,” she added.
Ros-Lehtinen presented Tsai with a miniature of the Statue of Freedom that stands atop the US Capitol’s dome.
The reception was held in a congressional chamber provided by the House Foreign Affairs Committee and it was hosted by the Formosan Association for Public Affairs.
“Taiwanese Americans are eternally grateful for the support from members of Congress who have given us the hope that we will never walk alone even in the darkest night,” association president Mark Kao (高龍榮) said.
He said that like US civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Taiwanese Americans had a dream.
“Our dream is that Taiwan can move out of the international isolation imposed on it by the outdated One China policy and be accepted as a full and equal member in the international community,” Kao said.
“Taiwan is a free and democratic nation state and should be treated as a normal country like all other countries,” he said. “Together we work to enhance US-Taiwan relations, to sustain Taiwan’s democracy and freedom, and to ensure that the people on the island have a free choice on their future.”
“We believe that a free and democratic Taiwan will enhance regional stability and be in the best interests of the US,” he said.
In a short address, Tsai thanked the US Congress for all of its support and promised that if she was elected she would work tirelessly to enhance relations with the US.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
‘MALIGN PURPOSE’: Governments around the world conduct espionage operations, but China’s is different, as its ultimate goal is annexation, a think tank head said Taiwan is facing a growing existential threat from its own people spying for China, experts said, as the government seeks to toughen measures to stop Beijing’s infiltration efforts and deter Taiwanese turncoats. While Beijing and Taipei have been spying on each other for years, experts said that espionage posed a bigger threat to Taiwan due to the risk of a Chinese attack. Taiwan’s intelligence agency said China used “diverse channels and tactics” to infiltrate the nation’s military, government agencies and pro-China organizations. The main targets were retired and active members of the military, persuaded by money, blackmail or pro-China ideology to steal
RSS