Former US secretary of labor Elaine Chao (趙小蘭) and her father are to be granted honorary doctoral degrees next week by a Taiwanese university in recognition of their achievements.
Chao and her father, James Chao (趙錫成), who arrived in Taiwan on Thursday, are to receive the honorary degrees from National Chiao Tung University on Monday at a ceremony in Hsinchu.
Elaine Chao was secretary of the US Department of Labor from 2001 to 2009 in the administration of then-US president George W. Bush. Her focus was on improving the competitiveness of the US workforce. She is the first American woman of Asian descent to have served as a member of the US Cabinet.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
The 61-year-old is recognized for her handling of incidents such as the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 and the Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska in 1989, and for her management of maritime transportation during the Gulf War in the early 1990s, when she served as head of the Federal Maritime Commission and deputy secretary of the US Department of Transportation.
Elaine Chao, now a distinguished fellow at the US Heritage Foundation, was born in Taiwan and emigrated to the US with her family at the age of eight.
Her husband, Mitch McConnell, a senior Republican senator from Kentucky, has been Minority Leader of the US Senate since 2007. He is set to become the Senate Majority leader, following the midterm elections earlier this month.
James Chao was a driving force behind the re-establishment of National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan in 1958. The university was originally founded in Shanghai in 1896.
A graduate of the university when it was still based in Shanghai, James Chao is a recognized leader in international shipping and finance.
James Chao also played a significant role in promoting academic exchanges between five Taiwanese and Chinese universities from 1988 to 1999, National Chiao Tung University said, which decided to grant him an honorary degree in recognition of his contribution to the university.
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
TAKE BREAKS: A woman developed cystitis by refusing to get up to use the bathroom while playing mahjong for fear of disturbing her winning streak, a doctor said People should stand up and move around often while traveling or playing mahjong during the Lunar New Year holiday, as prolonged sitting can lead to cystitis or hemorrhoids, doctors said. Yuan’s General Hospital urologist Lee Tsung-hsi (李宗熹) said that he treated a 63-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙) who had been sitting motionless and holding off going to the bathroom, increasing her risk of bladder infection. Chao would drink beverages and not urinate for several hours while playing mahjong with friends and family, especially when she was on a winning streak, afraid that using the bathroom would ruin her luck, he said. She had
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
RSS