American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Raymond Greene and President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday together attended a ceremony launching a civic defense and disaster preparedness training course in New Taipei City.
The opening ceremony of 2.0 Take Action — a first aid education and training course to hone the skills of frontline responders in major disaster incidents, co-organized by the AIT and Taiwan Development Association for Disaster Medical Teams — in the city’s Wulai District (烏來) was the third meeting of the pair since the US diplomat took office in July.
After praising the course’s mudslide disaster preparedness scenario, Lai participated in an exercise by helping bandage volunteers who were pretending to be injured.
Photo: Wong Yu-huang, Taipei Times
The mother of the child who was pretending to be injured even urged him to hurry up, Lai joked, adding that the interaction showed how seriously the participants took the exercise.
Greene said he is glad that Taiwan and the US are cooperating on humanitarian and disaster relief efforts, and that more than 2,000 people have participated in similar first aid education and training courses in 13 cities and counties in the past three years.
Taiwan’s fast response to and recovery from Typhoon Kong-rey late last month and early this month serves as a role model for the Indo-Pacific region, he said.
National Chung Hsing University Graduate Institute of International Politics professor Chen Mu-min (陳牧民) said that Lai and Greene appearing in public together has diplomatic significance.
The US Department of State trains its diplomats well, so it is careful regarding public appearances and photo opportunities with heads of state, meaning that Lai and Greene’s appearances together imply that the Taiwan-US relationship has become stronger, Chen said.
Shortly after taking office, Greene on July 10 met with Lai and stressed the US would strongly support Taiwan’s self-defense capabilities, and that Taipei and Washington have common and long-term interests in peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.
On Sept. 14, Greene met with Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) at an emergency response event organized by the Forward Alliance think tank in New Taipei City, where he said that “resilience, security and connectivity” were priorities for relations between Taiwan and the US.
He also praised Lai’s administration for establishing the Whole-of-Society Defense Resilience Committee.
On Sept. 20, Lai attended a mass earthquake disaster relief drill, which included international participants, in Chiayi County, where he again met with Greene, as well as Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association Deputy Representative Takashi Hattori.
After the first Whole-of-Society Defense Resilience Committee meeting on Sept. 26, AIT Managing Director Ingrid Larson said the US encourages and applauds the Lai administration’s efforts to bolster Taiwan’s whole-of-society resilience.
Chen, a former deputy representative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Center in India, said that when diplomats are willing to appear in the same photo with politicians, it means they support the event, so Greene’s public appearances with Lai or Hsiao at disaster training courses carries diplomatic significance.
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