Taiwanese President cancels Belize visit

Friday marks the celebration of the Republic of China’s National Day…and while the “A list” dignitaries will usher in the ten-ten holiday tonight at the Taiwanese Embassy, yesterday Taiwan’s Foreign Minister announced that President Chen Shui-bian’s upcoming visit to Belize has been cancelled. President Chen was due to embark on a seventeen-day trip at the end of this month that would take him to Belize, Panama, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The new plan is for a seven-day journey that would just carry him to Panama, along with brief stopovers in New York and Alaska. When contacted today, Taiwan’s Ambassador to Belize, Charles Tsai, explained to News 5 that pressing domestic issues prevented the president from leaving home for so long. Among those issues, no doubt, is a presidential election slated for March twentieth of next year. Tsai assured us that the trip to Belize was not cancelled, only postponed. As for when Chen would visit the jewel, Tsai admitted that it would likely wait until the next term of office…assuming the president is re-elected.