Local Taiwanese More than 30 people of Hawaii's Taiwanese community held signs and waved miniature Taiwanese flags in front of the Hawaii Prince Hotel yesterday to welcome Premier Chang Chun-hsiung to Honolulu.
community welcomes
visiting premier
Hawaii marks the last stop on
his low-key visit to the United
States and Caribbean nationsBy Rosemarie Bernardo
rbernardo@starbulletin.comChang's two-day Honolulu stopover was after an official visit to the Caribbean. He is expected to depart tomorrow morning for Taipei.
Before Chang left Taiwan on Sept. 1, China had protested his planned stopovers in U.S. cities. Beijing considers Taiwan a renegade province and opposes foreign governments granting permission for visits by Taiwanese leaders.
To avoid embarrassing his host, Chang was to make his transit low-profile, limiting his activities to meetings with U.S. congressmen and Taiwanese Americans. His itinerary also included a two-night stay in New York before leaving for a tour of Taiwan's allies of St. Christopher, Dominica, St. Vincent and Grenada.Nearly 200 people were expected to attend a banquet at the Hilton Hawaiian Village last night to welcome Chang. He planned to address the local Taiwanese community about their homeland's bid to rejoin the United Nations.
Invited guests included Scott Lu, president of the Taiwanese Association of America's Hawaii chapter; Ban Chan, president of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii; state House Speaker Calvin Say; and Richard Bush, chairman of the American Institute of Taiwan.
Chang left Grenada Saturday after his trip to Caribbean states that have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. He was accompanied by Minister of Transportation Yeh Chu-lan and Minister of Overseas Chinese Affairs Chang Fu-mei, who expressed hope that Taiwan would be welcomed back into the United Nations. In 1971, Taiwan lost its U.N. seat to China.
This is Chang's first visit to Hawaii as premier, said Hong-Ji Kuo, Hawaii's commissioner of the Overseas Commission of Taiwan. He was here about a decade ago as a tourist.
Chang, 63, was appointed premier by President Chen Shui-bian in October after former Premier Tang Fei resigned. As premier, Chang is the third-highest-ranking Taiwanese official, after Chen and Vice President Hsiu-lien Annette Lu.
Yesterday in Waikiki, members of the local Taiwanese community voiced their support for their homeland's bid to rejoin the United Nations.
"Taiwan is a nation of 23 million people. Our size is the state of Virginia," Kuo said. Taiwan has been one of the largest trading partners with the United Sates, Kuo added. "We strongly feel the country (Taiwan) has helped other countries in the world."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.