Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) cut short a 10-day trip to the US, returning to Taiwan early yesterday morning after leaving on Monday night, as Typhoon Gaemi approached the nation.
Lu said after arriving at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at about 4:15am that because the path of the storm was moving south and Taichung was likely to be affected, she decided to cancel her trip and fly back to Taiwan from Seattle.
Lu said she was returning to Taichung to help the city prepare for the storm’s possible impact.
Photo: Liao Yao-tung, Taipei Times
While Lu decided to return, the Taichung City Government delegation continued its 10-day US trip, led by Taichung Deputy Mayor Huang Kuo-jung (黃國榮).
Before departing for the US, Lu said her trip aims to strengthen ties, especially as Taichung has relationships with 16 sister cities and two friendship cities in the US, the most it has with any country.
Aside from to boosting ties and exchanges with those cities, the delegation was set to visit high-tech companies and connect with Taichung businesspeople working in the US.
It was also to meet overseas compatriots in San Francisco and Greater Los Angeles.
In other news, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday announced that a meeting between Taiwanese and Chinese officials in Kinmen County yesterday morning to discuss the Kinmen speedboat incident was postponed due to Gaemi.
The incident on Feb. 14 left two Chinese nationals dead.
However, due to the approach of Gaemi, the cross-strait ferry services that are part of the “small three links” had been suspended, preventing the family members of the two deceased Chinese sailors and the delegation of Chinese officials from reaching Kinmen, the council said in a statement.
A new date for the meeting is to be decided later by both sides, the statement read.
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