The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) yesterday thanked departing Representative to the US Stanley Kao (高碩泰) for his contributions to US-Taiwan relations and welcomed Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴), who is to succeed him.
The AIT released a statement thanking Kao for his service, a move it rarely makes, a day after Kao issued a farewell letter to extend his appreciation to overseas Taiwanese compatriots for their support during his time in Washington.
Kao has spent half of his career in diplomacy advancing the Taiwan-US partnership, with four postings to the US. His current tenure is to end this month.
Photo taken from the TECRO Facebook page
Taiwan-US ties could be the best they have ever been, Kao said in the letter, adding that the warm relationship of the past few years demonstrates strong mutual trust.
Reviewing diplomatic milestones of his time in the US, Kao said that a telephone conversation between President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and then-US president elect Donald Trump on Dec. 2, 2016, was one.
Over the past four years, Tsai made six successful transits through the US, nearly 100 public messages by high-ranking US officials praised Taiwan, and the US Congress has passed bills to bolster the bilateral relationship, including the Taiwan Travel Act, the 2018 Asia Reassurance Initiative Act, last year’s Taiwan Allies International Protection and the Enhancement Initiative Act and the National Defense Authorization Act for next fiscal year, he said.
“Representative Kao’s long experience working with US institutions helped drive a number of important achievements that have brought the United States and Taiwan closer together,” the AIT said.
“From successful transits by President Tsai to historic agreements to sell tanks and F-16Vs to Taiwan, together we have advanced Taiwan’s international standing and ability to defend itself,” it said.
The AIT also praised Kao’s leadership, endorsed his efforts to fight for Taiwan’s participation at the World Health Assembly and technical meetings of the WHO, and thanked him for coordinating Taiwan’s mask donations to frontline medical workers across the US amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The AIT congratulated Hsiao on her appointment for “this critical role,” expressing confidence in her strong record of promoting US-Taiwan relations in the areas of security cooperation and the economy.
“We are confident that the US-Taiwan friendship will continue to flourish during her tenure,” it said.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not