President Ma visits Bay Area

Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou stayed overnight in San Francisco on his way to Central America on June 29th. He was welcomed at the San Francisco International Airport by William Brown (the Honorary Chair of the American Institute in Taiwan), Jason Yuan (the Representative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Washington, D.C.), and Thomas J. C. Chen (the Director General of TECO in San Francisco).

Accompanied by first lady Chow Mei-ching and a 169-member delegation, Ma stopped in the Bay Area on his way to Panama and Nicaragua. Due to the recent coup that forced the president of Honduras, Manuel Zeyala, into exile, the country was excluded from Ma’s itinerary.

Awaiting the president’s arrival at the Marriott Hotel were a contingent of supporters and also protesters who oppose his policies towards China.

While at the hotel, Ma had a telephone conversation with the former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who praised Ma’s leadership and his mainland policy that has calmed cross-strait relations. He also talked by phone with six US congressmen.

That evening, Ma attended a banquet organized by local overseas Chinese communities, which included notable residents such as US Congressman Mike Honda, San Francisco Board of Supervisors president David Chiu, the president of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association in San Francisco Bong L. Wong and some 250 leaders in the political, business and technology arena.

The following morning, Ma flew to Panama to attend the inauguration ceremony of President Ricardo Martinelli before continuing onward to Nicaragua to meet with President Daniel Ortega. Ma and his delegation made a 23-hour stopover in Hawaii arriving late on July 4th on his return trip home.