Two World Health Organization (WHO) experts arrived in Taipei last night to help with Taiwan's outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, according government and WHO officials.
WHO spokesman Dick Thompson said in a telephone interview late last night that experts with the communicable disease section of the WHO were in Taiwan to do a "preliminary assessment" of the SARS outbreak.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
The experts are scheduled to stay in Taiwan for "a few days, or maybe a week" for their work, which was being done out of humanitarian concern, Thompson said.
The WHO will then decide whether it will dispatch more personnel to Taiwan, he said.
Senior officials yesterday were skeptical about China's role in the WHO's decision to send a professional team to help with Taiwan's outbreak of the potentially fatal flu-like disease.
Cabinet Spokesman Lin Chia-lung (
"Since the very beginning of the outbreak here, we've been in close and direct contact with the WHO," Lin said. "China played no part in the WHO's deciding to send medical experts to help us combat the disease."
China's Ministry of Health (MOH) said late Friday through Xinhua that China had allowed WHO officials could come to Taiwan to investigate the epidemic.
The Xinhua report also said the ministry would cooperate with Taiwan by sharing its experience and information with Taiwan in order to fight the spread of SARS.
According to Xinhua, the ministry also said the Chinese government has been very concerned about Taiwanese people's welfare and that the government has been very attentive to the development of SARS in Taiwan.
"I don't have faith in China," said Lee Lung-teng (李龍騰), deputy director-general of the Department of Health (DOH).
"On the basis of how China has treated us in the past, I don't think they could be sincere this time," Lee said.
Lee added he did not think China had displayed much goodwill when agreeing to an official WHO trip to Taiwan. "They [China] only want the WHO to see they are really taking care of Taiwan," Lee said.
According to Lee, China also intended to show off its influence over the WHO by agreeing with the officials' trip to Taiwan. "The WHO officials cannot come to Taiwan without China nodding its head," he said.
"They are simply playing politics. I will not play politics with them," Lee said.
Chen Ming-tung (
Even though China has allowed the WHO officials to come to Taiwan, it still opposes Taiwan's entrance into the WHO because it simply will not compromise on its sovereignty disputes with Taiwan, Chen said.
Meanwhile, Wu Shuh-min (
"What can they do here? They can hardly help. As for us, we could at most but provide them with our experience [in combating SARS]," Wu said.
Wu, a doctor and president of the Foundation of Medical Professionals Alliance in Taiwan (FMPAT), Taiwan's major lobbying group in the WHA, is under quarantine, though he remains healthy.
"China permitted WHO officials to visit Taiwan because it is under massive pressure from the international community," Wu said.
According to Wu, China has often claimed it takes care of Taiwanese people's health.
"However, the SARS outbreak in Taiwan has pulverized China's myth," he said.
Taiwan's first imported SARS case came from China, said the Center for Disease Control.
Taiwan and many other countries are suffering from China's cover-ups of its SARS outbreak. "I am really curious whether China still has the guts to proclaim to the member states in the WHA that it always takes care of the Taiwanese people's health," Wu said.
Also See Stories:
SARS lines opened for foreigners
SARS epidemic: Ma warns of SARS fight ahead in city
SARS epidemic: Executive Yuan announces insurance plan
SARS epidemic: Chen postpones diplomatic trip to Central America
SARS epidemic: Lawmaker urges quarantine overhaul
SARS epidemic: Taiwan `medium' SARS-virus risk, WHO announces
US lawmakers want role for Taiwan at the WHO
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2