At the 2019 Lunar New Year reception, we invited some of our VIP guests, including Hawaii State Governer David Ige, former Chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Amb. Raymond Burghardt, and State House Speaker Emeritus Calvin Say, to get on stage and feed the lion, so as to wish everyone to have a prosperous year of pig!
In his opening remarks, DG Tseng mentioned that as Vice President of the United States Pence depicted “Taiwan’s embrace of democracy” as “a better path for all the Chinese people”, we hope that ethnic Chinese all over the world can experience this blessing of freedom and democracy as people in Taiwan do. This year we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA), which has laid a secured and solid foundation for US-Taiwan relations in the past four decades.
Gov. Ige said that just last year, the state of Hawaii and Taiwan celebrated the 25th anniversary of sister-state relationship. He was happy to see the increase in bilateral trade and in the number of Taiwanese students coming to Hawaii. The 2020 FESTPAC will be held in Hawaii, he is grateful for and looking forward to the participation of indigenous people in Taiwan.
Former Chairman Amb. Burghardt stated that thanks to the efforts by the leadership of Taiwan in upgrading U.S.-Taiwan relations and in responding steadily to its neighbor’s oppression, bilateral relations has reached an all-time high.
Speaker Emeritus Hon. Say appreciated Taiwanese communities’ contributions in the past 25 years since the launch of the sister-state relationship between Hawaii and Taiwan.