Taiwan failed in its ninth bid to be included in the World Health Organization (WHO) yesterday as the World Health Assembly (WHA) decided not to list Taiwan's WHO bid on its agenda.
After a three-hour long debate on whether to include Taiwan in the WHA's agenda, the WHA's General Committee ruled to exclude the sensitive issue.
During the discussion in the General Committee yesterday, 54 countries spoke up on the issue. Twenty-one countries voiced their staunch support for Taiwan, whereas 33 countries opposed the nation's bid.
Remarkably, two nations without diplomatic ties with Taiwan -- Fiji and Papua New Guinea -- also backed Taiwan's bid.
Meanwhile, on Sunday Malawian Health Minister H.M. Ntaba cast some light on the memorandum of understanding which China and the WHO Secretariat signed to facilitate technical exchanges between Taiwan and the WHO.
According to Ntaba, WHO Director-General Lee Jong-wook told a meeting of Commonwealth health ministers that China accepted Taiwan's participation in the WHO, but only as part of China.
Although he did not unveil all details of the memorandum, Lee spent around six minutes introducing it at the beginning of the routine meeting of Commonwealth health ministers on Sunday.
The memo states that Taiwan can only seek technical assistance from the WHO via China, and that the WHO cannot send medical experts to Taiwan without Beijing's permission, Ntaba told Taiwanese reporters before a dinner banquet with delegates of Taiwan's diplomatic allies to the WHA.
"Lee said he hoped the health ministers understood that we now have a chance of getting Taiwan to participate in the WHO," Ntaba said.
After Lee's introduction of the memorandum of understanding, Ntaba raised the question of why the WHO did not discuss the memorandum with Taiwan.
"You must speak to Taiwan and tell us what Taiwan says about it," Ntaba told Lee.
Lee, however, evaded Ntaba's question by saying he would not spend the whole meeting talking about Taiwan.
The way Lee raised the topic of the memorandum of understanding was strange, Ntaba said.
"He was not asked about it. He did not have to talk about it. It was not on the agenda," the health minister said.
Ntaba said Lee probably mentioned the issue because he wanted to "test the waters."
also see stories:
Taiwanese support WHO bid in Geneva
China tries to explain memorandum
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying