
Former premier Yu Shyi-kun will lead a bipartisan delegation to attend the inauguration of Donald Trump as president of the United States on January 20. That’s the word from Presidential Office Spokesperson Alex Huang on Friday.
Huang said the party will leave Taiwan on January 16th and return on the 23rd. In addition to attending the inauguration, the delegation will also meet American political figures, think tank scholars and expatriate groups. Huang said the size of the delegation and its arrangements are similar to past delegations to US presidential inaugurations.
Huang said, "The ties between Taiwan and the United States are close and deep with great mutual trust for many years. [We wish] to show that we place great importance on the close and friendly ties between our governments and peoples, and also to respond to the goodwill shown to us when the American side sent a delegation to attend the inauguration of President Tsai Ing-wen in May this year. Accordingly, we have in line with past practice selected a bipartisan delegation to attend [President Trump’s] inauguration ceremony next year."
The head of the delegation, Yu Shyi-kun, was premier between 2002 and 2005 under the former Democratic Progressive Party administration of Chen Shui-bian.