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Taiwanese officials visit Nevada Legislature

Thursday, May 15, 1997 | 7:39 a.m.

Benjamin Y.T. Lo, director of the San Francisco-based Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, spoke to the Legislature as part of a commemoration of Nevada's sister-state status with Taiwan.

"We try to be useful friends of the state of Nevada," Lo told lawmakers. Lo said Taiwan has only one-eighth of the land that Nevada has, but is home to more than 10 times the number of people.

But Lo also had a political agenda. He told lawmakers that Taiwan offered to donate $4 million to help U.N. troops during the Persian Gulf War, but the money was turned down because the U.N. won't recognize Taiwan as a country separate from China.

"Andorra is a member of the United Nations, and they have 50,000 people," Lo said, referring to a tiny country in Europe's Pyrenees Mountains. "I had to look up where Andorra is in the dictionary."

Lo also said Taiwan is nervous about the impending Chinese takeovers of Hong Kong this year and the Portuguese colony of Macao in 1999.

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