Responding to Taiwan's strong protests, the World Health Organization (WHO) has corrected the global avian influenza maps posted on its Web site by changing the color of Taiwan to indicate the nation's H5N1-free status, an official said yesterday.
"We welcome and recognize the WHO's prompt and positive response to our demand," Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesman Michel Lu said, "and we hope the organization would avoid a similar incident happening again."
He added that the WHO's correction was congruent with professionalism and the facts of the matter.
The WHO erroneously included Taiwan in a list of countries affected by the deadly H5N1 avian flu strain on four global and country maps posted on its official Web site on March 9.
As Taiwan has not recorded any H5N1 avian flu case in either animals or humans, the foreign affairs ministry swiftly lodged a formal complaint with the WHO headquarters in Geneva, demanding an immediate correction.
The organization responded by holding a press conference on March 10 to announce that Taiwan had not reported any bird-flu cases as of that date.
The WHO Secretariat said that it had classified the avian flu situation in terms of "nation" and that under its "one China" policy, Taiwan was included as an H5N1-affected area along with China -- which has recorded H5N1 bird flu cases in both animals and humans.
After intensive negotiations, two WHO officials publicly confirmed last Friday that Taiwan is free of H5N1 avian flu infections in poultry, wild birds and humans. But they remained noncommittal as to how to deal with its Web site maps.
In light of the potentially negative impact on Taiwan's economy, trade, tourism and international image, the nation's representative office in Geneva continued negotiations with WHO authorities over the weekend. Acting on Taiwan's push, the WHO Secretariat finally corrected its mistake yesterday.
The WHO replaced the color of Taiwan on its map of infected areas from red (meaning human contracted H5N1 virus had been detected) to white (none detected).
On the revised WHO global avian flu maps, Taiwan ranks among countries with no H5N1 cases in both animals and humans.
The foreign affairs ministry issued a statement yesterday evening expressing appreciation for the organization's efforts and the concern of the international community.
The Department of Health also thanked the WHO for quickly rectifying the information, adding that it hoped the organization would contact local health authorities for updated information on the disease.
"This indicates that our demand was reasonable," said Chang Wu-hsiu (
NETWORK-MAPPING PROJECT: The database contains 170 detailed files of Taiwanese politicians and about 23 million records of household registration data in Taiwan China has developed a network-mapping project targeting political figures and parties in Taiwan to monitor public opinion during elections and to craft tailored influence campaigns aimed at dividing Taiwanese society, according to documents leaked by Chinese technology firm GoLaxy (中科天璣). The documents, collected by Taipei-based Doublethink Lab, showed a database was specifically created to gather detailed information on Taiwanese political figures, including their political affiliations, job histories, birthplaces, residences, education, religion and a brief biography about them. Several notable Taiwanese politicians are in the database, including President William Lai (賴清德), former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍),
RECOGNITION: Former Fijian prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry said that Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy serves as a stabilizing force in the Indo-Pacific region Taiwan can lead the unification of the Chinese people, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former Polish president Lech Walesa said in Taipei yesterday, adding that as the world order is changing, peaceful discussion would find good solutions, and that the use of force and coercion would always fail. Walesa made the remarks during his keynote address at a luncheon of the Yushan Forum in Taipei, titled “Indo-Pacific Partnership Prospects: Taiwan’s Values, Technology and Resilience,” organized by the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Walesa said that he had been at the forefront of a big peaceful revolution and “if
North Korea tested nuclear-capable rocket launchers, state media reported yesterday, a day after Seoul detected the launch of about 10 ballistic missiles. The test comes after South Korean and US forces launched their springtime military drills, due to run until Thursday. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Saturday oversaw the testing of the multiple rocket launcher system (MRLS), the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. The test involved 12 600mm-caliber ultra-precision multiple rocket launchers and two artillery companies, it said. Kim said the drill gave Pyongyang’s enemies, within the 420km striking range, a sense of “uneasiness” and “a deep understanding
North Korea yesterday fired about 10 ballistic missiles to the sea toward Japan, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, days after Pyongyang warned of “terrible consequences” over ongoing South Korea-US military drills. Pyongyang recently dashed hopes of a diplomatic thaw with Seoul, Washington’s security ally, describing its latest peace efforts as a “clumsy, deceptive farce.” Seoul’s military detected “around 10 ballistic missiles launched from the Sunan area in North Korea toward the East Sea [Sea of Japan] at around 1:20pm,” JCS said in a statement, referring to South Korea’s name for the body of water. The missiles
RSS