Vice President Annette Lu received this afternoon the visiting group from "National Foundation for Women Legislators." The Vice President expressed her sincere welcome to their visit to Taiwan on behalf of the government and people of the Republic of China (Taiwan).
Ms. Robin Read, the president of the Foundation, together with other members of the group, praised Vice President Lu as a model of women's participation in politics. Ms. Read was also highly interested in the history of Vice President Lu's career in politics as a woman. Vice President Lu said that her career in politics could be traced back to the 1970s, when she first joined women's campaigns. She was inspired by the National Women's Conference held in Chicago, U.S.A. She then began her campaign on democracy in Taiwan, which was then still under the Martial Law. During that period of time, Vice President Lu was once arrested for her 20-minute speech during the Formosa Incident and she was sentenced to 12-year imprisonment. At the age of 30, doctors diagnosed her as having thyroid cancer. Even so, she stood by democracy. In 2000, Vice President Lu was nominated by President Chen as the running partner for the presidency and later became the first female vice president in the history of Taiwan and also China. Moreover, since the peaceful transfer of political power in 2000 and the new government was in place, President Chen, holding on to his promise and emphasis on women's rights in politics, chose her to be the vice president and nominated many outstanding women as members of the cabinet. Currently, one-fourth of the cabinet members and 22% of the legislators are women. With the maturity of democracy in Taiwan and women's distinction in honesty, devotion, love and intellects, Vice President Lu believed that women in Taiwan will have more room in their participation in politics.
Ms. Read and the members were also concerned about Taiwan's participation in the international community. To explain that, Vice President Lu used the APEC informal leaders forum that recently concluded in Busan, Korea, as an example. She pointed out that Taiwan is an official member of APEC, but President Chen was not allowed to participate in the forum, which was extremely unfair. Besides, Taiwan is the only nation in the world that cannot be admitted as a member of the United Nations. These are all due to the pressure from China. Furthermore, take the United States of America for example. Senior government officials from Taiwan can only stop over in U.S.A. on their way to visit countries in Central and South Americas that have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Though there is no formal diplomatic relations between Taiwan and the U.S.A., both countries are still working on developing close and pragmatic relations. There are a lot of business interactions between the countries' private sectors. Moreover, the high-tech industry in Taiwan is the partner of many well-known US firms. In the article entitled "Why Taiwan Matters" in one of the previous issues of "Business Week," the author pointed out that Taiwan is the "hidden center of the global economy," and that if there were be "a shooting war between Taiwan and China, the damage would be a direct hit to the global economy and the Digital Age." This gives credence to the importance of Taiwan. However, due to the special and advantageous geographical location of Taiwan, Vice President Lu believed that the businesses in Taiwan and the US should improve communications and cooperation. Taiwan can be the spring board for global multi-national businesses to enter China. For example, they can use Taiwan as the center for industry development and research. As Taiwan and China are close geographically and share similar cultural backgrounds, many laws regarding commerce and business in China are borrowed from Taiwan. Taiwan knows China better than any country in the world. This would save the multi-national giants a lot of time and effort. Vice President Lu believed that for many multi-national businesses, Taiwan should be the best choice.