Taiwan yesterday officially launched its 10th bid to gain observer status at the World Health Assembly (WHA), striving for "meaningful participation" in the body's annual meeting that is scheduled to begin next week, government officials announced yesterday.
The WHA -- the World Health Organization's highest decision-making body -- will convene its annual assembly in Geneva from next Monday through Saturday.
"Apart from gaining observer status at the WHA, which has always been our goal, another important goal this year is to strive for meaningful participation -- in which our health experts are allowed to participate in WHO-sponsored meetings," vice foreign minister Michael Kau (高英茂) said yesterday.
Kau made the remarks at a press conference jointly held by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Department of Health and the Government Information Office regarding the nation's application to enter the world health body.
The term "meaningful participation" entails the inclusion of Taiwan in a global infectious disease alert and response system, the implementation of the International Health Regulations, and Taiwan's participation in WHO-sponsored technical meetings as well as in activities of its six regional offices.
The nation's Center for Disease Control (CDC) announced on Monday that it would volunteer to go ahead with early implementation of the regulations, which are the WHO's global legal framework for infectious disease control. The health assembly passed the regulations last year and decided to begin global implementation in the second half of this year.
The regulations aim to bolster global systems for the quarantine, surveillance, reporting and verification of infectious diseases. By implementing the regulations, the CDC will become a window of contact between Taiwan and the global health community, Kau said.
Kau said that last year, Taiwan participated in 14 out of a total of 32 WHA meetings it requested joining. Taiwan's participation in the meetings depended on whether China was opposed or not, he said.
The WHO Secretariat signed a memorandum of understanding with China last year in which it agreed that Beijing's permission would be required for Taiwan's participation in any WHO activities.
The memorandum was a bilateral agreement between the WHO and China, and most of its contents remain unknown to Taiwanese officials.
Minister of Health Hou Sheng-mou (侯勝茂) said that the memorandum required that all Taiwanese applications to join meetings must be submitted four to five weeks in advance, and that the WHO would allow China to appoint the Taiwanese individual who could join a particular.
"The officials allowed to join the meeting are usually low-ranking, and the response [from China] has varied," Hou said.
Hou said whether or not Taiwan could attend a meeting appeared to be decided by China in a "random" manner.
Kau said that striving for "meaningful participation" in the WHA's activities was even more significant than gaining observer status at the assembly.
"Gaining observer status is a highly difficult task, as China regards this as an issue of politics and sovereignty. It's gotten more and more difficult in recent years as China has intensified its `sovereign diplomacy and big country diplomacy' to squeeze out any possible international space for Taiwan," he said.
Kau explained that under the agreement between the WHO and China, Taiwan sometimes had to participate in the WHO's technical meetings under the name "Taiwan, China" or sometimes participated as "Taipei."
"We tried to be pragmatic and flexible on the status issue because sometimes, if the [WHO's] invitations go directly to Beijing, then Taiwan's name will be downgraded. But if not, for example, when we participated in a meeting held in Japan ... in that case we can just ignore Beijing and go directly to the organization responsible for holding the meeting. There is a limit to China's pressure," Kau said.
DETERRENCE: With 1,000 indigenous Hsiung Feng II and III missiles and 400 Harpoon missiles, the nation would boast the highest anti-ship missile density in the world With Taiwan wrapping up mass production of Hsiung Feng II and III missiles by December and an influx of Harpoon missiles from the US, Taiwan would have the highest density of anti-ship missiles in the world, a source said yesterday. Taiwan is to wrap up mass production of the indigenous anti-ship missiles by the end of year, as the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has been meeting production targets ahead of schedule, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said. Combined with the 400 Harpoon anti-ship missiles Taiwan expects to receive from the US by 2028, the nation would have
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
‘UNWAVERING FRIENDSHIP’: A representative of a Japanese group that co-organized a memorial, said he hopes Japanese never forget Taiwan’s kindness President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday marked the 15th anniversary of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, urging continued cooperation between Taiwan and Japan on disaster prevention and humanitarian assistance. Lai wrote on social media that Taiwan and Japan have always helped each other in the aftermath of major disasters. The magnitude 9 earthquake struck northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011, triggering a massive tsunami that claimed more than 19,000 lives, according to data from Japanese authorities. Following the disaster, Taiwan donated more than US$240 million in aid, making it one of the largest contributors of financial assistance to Japan. In addition to cash donations and
RSS