West Virginia would build a long-term relationship with Taiwan, said Craig Blair, lieutenant governor of the US state, at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its representative office in Taipei on Thursday.
Blair, who is president of the West Virginia Senate, said he looked forward to the office providing a platform to build ties between Taiwan and his state.
He had advocated opening a representative office since his previous visit to Taiwan in 2018, Blair said.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
Taiwan’s landscape reminds him of West Virginia, he said, adding that while there the two places speak different languages, “the cultures and friendship is exactly the same.”
“I’ve passed more tunnels in the last 48 hours than I have in my entire life,” Blair said, adding that tunneling technology could be a focus of cooperation given West Virginia’s mountainous terrain.
He plans to form a think tank linking Taiwan and West Virginia to study which areas are most beneficial for the two sides to cooperate on, Blair told reporters.
West Virginia Secretary of the Department of Economic Development Mitch Carmichael thanked Taiwan for allowing the state government to open the office.
West Virginia is a great investment destination and is known for its high quality of life, low cost of living and highly competitive workforce, Carmichael said.
Douglas Hsu (徐佑典), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ North American Affairs Department, congratulated the US visitors on the opening of the office, saying that many US state governments are opening them in Taiwan.
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin this week approved a Virginia trade office in Taiwan.
Twelve other US states and one territory have opened representative offices in Taiwan: Arizona, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Wyoming, as well as Guam, which is an unincorporated US territory.
In other news, the Arizona House of Representatives on Tuesday unanimously passed State Concurrent Resolution 1021, which supports Taiwan’s international participation, and a closer partnership between Taiwan and the US in terms of trade and official exchanges.
The resolution, passed amid a standing ovation, says: “The members of the legislature support a future official visit to Taiwan by the governor of Arizona at her discretion.”
Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles head Amino Chi (紀欽耀) witnessed the resolution being passed.
Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs told Chi at the hearing that she supports democratic Taiwan.
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) is to begin his one-year alternative military service tomorrow amid ongoing legal issues, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. Wang, who last month was released on bail of NT$150,000 (US$4,561) as he faces charges of allegedly attempting to evade military service and forging documents, has been ordered to report to Taipei Railway Station at 9am tomorrow, the Alternative Military Service Training and Management Center said. The 33-year-old would join about 1,300 other conscripts in the 263rd cohort of general alternative service for training at the Chenggong Ling camp in Taichung, a center official told reporters. Wang would first
MINOR DISRUPTION: The outage affected check-in and security screening, while passport control was done manually and runway operations continued unaffected The main departure hall and other parts of Terminal 2 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport lost power on Tuesday, causing confusion among passengers before electricity was fully restored more than an hour later. The outage, the cause of which is still being investigated, began at about midday and affected parts of Terminal 2, including the check-in gates, the security screening area and some duty-free shops. Parts of the terminal immediately activated backup power sources, while others remained dark until power was restored in some of the affected areas starting at 12:23pm. Power was fully restored at 1:13pm. Taoyuan International Airport Corp said in a
RSS