Taiwanese Premier to visit next week

One week from today Belize will host a top-level delegation from the Republic of China on Taiwan. Leading the thirty-eight-member group, which includes four Cabinet ministers, is Premier Yu Shyi-kun. The visit, which will take place on August twelfth and thirteenth, is the last stop on Yu’s official tour of Central America. The fifty-four year old Premier has had a remarkable career. He rose from humble origins, attending high school at night, became involved in local government as a member of the ruling KMT party. But later he was among those who broke off from the KMT to form Taiwan’s first opposition party, the DPP, while Taiwan was still under marshal law. In 2000, for the first time in the nation’s history, the opposition was victorious and Yu was appointed Vice Premier by newly elected President Chen Shui-bian. After only a new months in office, however, Yu resigned. He had been chairman of government’s disaster relief committee when four people died in a flood allegedly because the rescue helicopter was late in arriving at the scene. Rather than blame the civil servants, he took the responsibility himself for the good of his party. Yu’s political hibernation lasted only six months and he was appointed to the post of Secretary General in the Office of the President. In February of this year he was named Premier. Before leaving Belize, Premier Yu will be conferred with Belize’s Order of Distinction.