00:00Taiwan's passport is ranked the 32nd strongest in the world.
00:04It gives visa-free access to over 130 destinations globally.
00:10Even though Taiwan isn't officially recognized by most countries around the world, its citizens
00:15are given special privileges thanks to the hard work of its diplomats.
00:19One of those civil servants was Timothy Yang, who died aged 83 on Sunday.
00:24Yang was born in central Taiwan's Zhanghua County in 1942.
00:29He graduated from Taiwan's National Zhengzhi University before joining the Foreign Service
00:34in 1969.
00:36He held stints in Africa, Southeast Asia, America, and Australia.
00:41I didn't have to go to the university, so I found that he was very new to the country.
00:58In 1988, Yang was appointed Taiwan's first representative to Ireland.
01:03As he negotiated with the Irish government over the office's details, he worked out of hotel
01:09rooms for three months before establishing a permanent mission there.
01:28In 2009, Yang was appointed foreign minister under then-president Ma Ying-jio.
01:34His tenure coincided with the centennial of Taiwan's Republic of China government.
01:38And, for the occasion, he was tasked with securing the 100th territory Taiwanese passport holders
01:44could visit visa-free.
01:46Yang Chen Bu-jang, he was able to be able to be able to visit visa-free.
01:50He was able to be able to visit visa-free.
01:53He was able to be able to visit visa-free.
01:59One of Yang's major diplomatic wins was obtaining visa-free access for Taiwanese passport holders
02:05traveling to the EU.
02:07In his memoir, he said he got Czech officials to propose the idea in EU Parliament after
02:12using Taiwan's visa-free program with Great Britain as a precedent.
02:17After a three-year span as foreign minister, Yang was reassigned as secretary-general to the
02:22president.
02:23For his contributions to the country's diplomacy, Yang was given the Order of Brilliant Star with
02:28Special Grand Cordon, one of Taiwan's top civilian honors.
02:53Yang gave his life to the Foreign Service.
02:55He worked tirelessly to help advance Taiwan's image on the international stage.
03:00Not only that, but his work as a career diplomat is something that almost every Taiwanese passport
03:05holder benefits from today.
03:08Yi Sin-chun and Leslie Liao for Taiwan Plus.
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