President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has been included in this year’s Financial Times list of most influential women, published on Thursday, which also featured Hong Kong democracy advocate Agnes Chow (周庭) and US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The annual Women of the Year feature was expanded to 25 honorees this year, and was compiled in collaboration with reporters from dozens of the newspaper’s international bureaus, former women of the year and readers, the British publication said.
The entry on Tsai was written by Carrie Gracie, a former BBC China editor and author.
Photo: Bloomberg
Gracie praised Tsai for her resilience, saying that this year she navigated the “dangers of the country’s position on the geopolitical faultline between authoritarianism and democracy.”
Unlike many of the world’s political and business leaders “who self-censor at the first hint of displeasure from Beijing, Tsai does not buckle in the face of intimidation. Nor does she antagonize,” Gracie said.
Tsai has articulated and demonstrated through her leadership style how Taiwan’s values differ from those of China, she said.
“Her leadership offers a lesson for all of us: how to respect Chinese interests without selling out our own,” she said.
The Financial Times also included WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on the list.
Others on the list include US Federal Trade Commission chairperson Lina Khan, General Motors CEO Mary Barra and IMF chief economist Gita Gopinath.
Presidential Office spokesman Xavier Chang (張惇涵) yesterday cited Tsai as saying the nomination was not about her, but instead recognition for Taiwan.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai