On Monday, Taiwan's eighth bid to join the World Health Assembly (WHA) was ended by a vote of 133 to 25. But both the US and Japan, after many years of silence, finally spoke out for Taiwan, urging the WHA to exclude political considerations and accept Taiwan as an observer without voting rights on the principle that medical issues transcend national boundaries.
The SARS epidemic hurt Taiwan deeply last year. Although the nation paid considerable social costs in the process of dealing with the disease, its outstanding performance attracted worldwide attention. Taiwan's medical care standards and public health defenses are much better than those of China, which ranks 144th among the 191 WHA member states.
Beijing has been the source of two SARS outbreaks that sent the entire world into a panic. Yet it shamelessly claims that it has provided medical assistance or earthquake emergency aid to Taiwan as a Chinese province.
Is this for real? If the Chinese regime really cherishes the life and property of the Taiwanese people, why would it deploy 500 missiles along its coastline aimed? How is it possible that a country so poor by sanitary and medical standards can offer assistance to a country with relatively better conditions?
History reveals China's claims to be lies. Prior to any Chinese settlement in Taiwan, Portuguese commercial boats arrived in nearby waters. Ever since then, the island, which was originally inhabited by Aboriginal people, has been tangled in world politics. The Dutch landed and started developing Tainan in 1624. The Spanish later occupied the north with an official ceremony on today's Hoping Island in Keelung.
China's political influence did not reach Taiwan until 1661, when Koxinga (
As these historical facts demonstrate, Taiwan has never been an inherent part of China's territory. Instead, it is an island that other powers have fought over since the 17th century. When the People's Republic of China was founded on Oct. 1, 1949, the Republic of China set up its central government in Taiwan separate from China's. One capital was in Beijing, the other in Taipei. The long standoff has produced "one country on each side" of the Taiwan Strait. It's absurd to claim Taiwan to be part of China's integral territory or as a breakaway province.
Beijing keeps pressing the international community to accept its twisted logic and historical claims, most recently in forcing Taiwan to be excluded once again from the WHA's list of observers. Such Chinese suppression will only further irritate the Taiwanese and will block this nation from contributing its medical aid and lending its experience to needy countries.
Although Taiwan's national dignity was damaged again, those who will suffer the most from this exclusion may be poor countries in need of medical aid, along with the principle of fair distribution of medical resources, which the WHA is supposed to uphold.
Saudi Arabian largesse is flooding Egypt’s cultural scene, but the reception is mixed. Some welcome new “cooperation” between two regional powerhouses, while others fear a hostile takeover by Riyadh. In Cairo, historically the cultural capital of the Arab world, Egyptian Minister of Culture Nevine al-Kilany recently hosted Saudi Arabian General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki al-Sheikh. The deep-pocketed al-Sheikh has emerged as a Medici-like patron for Egypt’s cultural elite, courted by Cairo’s top talent to produce a slew of forthcoming films. A new three-way agreement between al-Sheikh, Kilany and United Media Services — a multi-media conglomerate linked to state intelligence that owns much of
The US and other countries should take concrete steps to confront the threats from Beijing to avoid war, US Representative Mario Diaz-Balart said in an interview with Voice of America on March 13. The US should use “every diplomatic economic tool at our disposal to treat China as what it is... to avoid war,” Diaz-Balart said. Giving an example of what the US could do, he said that it has to be more aggressive in its military sales to Taiwan. Actions by cross-party US lawmakers in the past few years such as meeting with Taiwanese officials in Washington and Taipei, and
The Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan has no official diplomatic allies in the EU. With the exception of the Vatican, it has no official allies in Europe at all. This does not prevent the ROC — Taiwan — from having close relations with EU member states and other European countries. The exact nature of the relationship does bear revisiting, if only to clarify what is a very complicated and sensitive idea, the details of which leave considerable room for misunderstanding, misrepresentation and disagreement. Only this week, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) received members of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations
Denmark’s “one China” policy more and more resembles Beijing’s “one China” principle. At least, this is how things appear. In recent interactions with the Danish state, such as applying for residency permits, a Taiwanese’s nationality would be listed as “China.” That designation occurs for a Taiwanese student coming to Denmark or a Danish citizen arriving in Denmark with, for example, their Taiwanese partner. Details of this were published on Sunday in an article in the Danish daily Berlingske written by Alexander Sjoberg and Tobias Reinwald. The pretext for this new practice is that Denmark does not recognize Taiwan as a state under