It was very upsetting to hear President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) shameless comments about the World Health Assembly (WHA) during the recent presidential debate on TV.
In May, before the WHA meeting, legislators released internal WHO documents about Taiwan having to be listed as a province of China when it takes part in WHA events as an observer.
Following the release of this information, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it did not know about this crucial decision that was so detrimental to Taiwan’s presence in the international community.
Then, Ma and Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) held a top meeting of the National Security Council in which they both solemnly promised that a protest would be filed by government officials with the WHO in Geneva.
Before the Geneva trip, a press conference was held in which everyone was filled with righteous indignation, but then when the officials got to the WHO headquarters, they kept quiet. It was all just playing to the gallery.
Not long after this, several members of the EU parliament and the US Congress, as well as US Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, became fed up with the stalling, so they asked the WHO on Taiwan’s behalf.
In September, they received a reply confirming that what Ma had proclaimed to be “observer” status was tantamount to national humiliation and the abandonment of Taiwan’s sovereignty. Now, half a year has gone by and the Ma government has done nothing at all to right this wrong for the nation.
To allow Taiwan to participate in the WHO, starting in 1997, former Academia Sinica member Lee Chen-yuan (李鎮源) led Taiwan’s medical sector in investing time and money every year on visits to countries around the world to lobby for Taiwanese WHO membership. These actions gradually helped win the support of international bodies such as the World Medical Association.
After more than a decade, they had pushed Taiwan’s participation in the WHO to the point where it became part of an international consensus and large countries, such as the US, Japan and the EU, started to show their support.
The purpose of this was to bring about an opportunity for practical participation in the WHO both for the sake of Taiwan’s medical sector and for all Taiwanese.
Since Ma came into office in 2008, he has held private talks with the Chinese government and worked with Beijing to get Taiwan “the chance” to take part in the annual five-day WHA meeting in an attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of Taiwanese.
However, internationally, the Ma government has given tacit agreement to and accepted China’s proclamations of sovereignty over Taiwan and has gone along with China and the WHA memorandum of understanding, doing everything it has been asked to do.
In the beginning, the Ma government said it would continue to try its best to participate in technical meetings at the WHO, but when I recently got in touch with friends who are also senior WHO officials, I was shocked and angered to learn that, for the past three years, Taiwan has not tried to participate in any WHO events, nor had they seen or heard of any requests from Taiwan to be allowed to it participate in technical meetings at the organization.
In the past, there was a lot of hard work done to get large countries to lobby for Taiwan’s participation in regional meetings of the WHO or sit in on the meetings of the organization’s Executive Board, but in recent years, it has not received any official letters or requests for Taiwan’s participation.
Quite simply, the WHO does not know what Taiwan wants and seems to think Taiwan will be satisfied with taking part in one five-day conference each year.
In his efforts to please China, Ma has sacrificed Taiwanese’s basic human right to medical care and Taiwan’s right to participate in the international community.
He has also ruined the excellent quality of Taiwan’s medical community and its international reputation.
The way Ma and Beijing have joined hands to destroy all the hard-earned ground made by Taiwan’s medical community in gaining participation in international and medical health affairs is deeply upsetting.
Peter Chang is a doctor and formerly served as a representative for the Department of Health.
Translated by Drew Cameron
There is a modern roadway stretching from central Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland in the Horn of Africa, to the partially recognized state’s Egal International Airport. Emblazoned on a gold plaque marking the road’s inauguration in July last year, just below the flags of Somaliland and the Republic of China (ROC), is the road’s official name: “Taiwan Avenue.” The first phase of construction of the upgraded road, with new sidewalks and a modern drainage system to reduce flooding, was 70 percent funded by Taipei, which contributed US$1.85 million. That is a relatively modest sum for the effect on international perception, and
When former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) first took office in 2016, she set ambitious goals for remaking the energy mix in Taiwan. At the core of this effort was a significant expansion of the percentage of renewable energy generated to keep pace with growing domestic and global demands to reduce emissions. This effort met with broad bipartisan support as all three major parties placed expanding renewable energy at the center of their energy platforms. However, over the past several years partisanship has become a major headwind in realizing a set of energy goals that all three parties profess to want. Tsai
At the end of last year, a diplomatic development with consequences reaching well beyond the regional level emerged. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared Israel’s recognition of Somaliland as a sovereign state, paving the way for political, economic and strategic cooperation with the African nation. The diplomatic breakthrough yields, above all, substantial and tangible benefits for the two countries, enhancing Somaliland’s international posture, with a state prepared to champion its bid for broader legitimacy. With Israel’s support, Somaliland might also benefit from the expertise of Israeli companies in fields such as mineral exploration and water management, as underscored by Israeli Minister of
An elderly mother and her daughter were found dead in Kaohsiung after having not been seen for several days, discovered only when a foul odor began to spread and drew neighbors’ attention. There have been many similar cases, but it is particularly troubling that some of the victims were excluded from the social welfare safety net because they did not meet eligibility criteria. According to media reports, the middle-aged daughter had sought help from the local borough warden. Although the warden did step in, many services were unavailable without out-of-pocket payments due to issues with eligibility, leaving the warden’s hands
RSS