Taiwan's 10th bid to obtain observer status at the World Health Assembly (WHA) failed yesterday as the assembly excluded the addition of Taiwan's observer application from its agenda.
After one hour of discussion, the WHA's General Committee yesterday ruled out the inclusion of Taiwan's bid as a supplementary item on the assembly's agenda.
The WHA, which opened yesterday, is the highest-decision making body of the WHO.
PHOTO: WANG PING-YU, TAIPEI TIMES
During the discussion in the General Committee, Taiwan's diplomatic allies Gambia and Belize proposed to add Taiwan's bid to the assembly's agenda, but the bid was challenged by Cuba and China.
During the second plenary session of the General Committee, two of Taiwan's allies, Malawi and Palau, defended Taiwan against Pakistan and China, who spoke against the bid.
The Chinese delegates attending the assembly were Health Minister Gao Qiang (
Confronted by Taiwanese journalists at the entrance of the assembly hall prior to the opening ceremony of the assembly, Gao refused to make any comment, but told Taiwanese journalists to attend a press conference he would convene late yesterday evening.
Sha, however, told reporters that under the "one China" principle, "we support Taiwanese participation in the WHO's technical activities to the maximum level," adding that "what constitutes maximum participation is something that can be negotiated."
"We have been very concerned about the [Taiwanese people's] health. This is absolutely for sure," he said.
In response to questions from reporters about the Taiwan's refusal to participate in the WHO under the "one China" principle, Sha said "it [the principle] is a consensus in the international community."
Groups of Taiwanese who had traveled from the US, Europe and Taiwan yesterday gathered outside the UN building where the WHA was meeting to appeal for support for Taiwan's bid. Chanting slogans and singing songs, the demonstrators urged the WHO to allow Taiwan's participation.
"The more China opposes us, the more confident we'll remain to strive for WHO participation," said Wu Shu-min (吳樹民), president of the Medical Professionals Alliance of Taiwan.
In related news, New Zealand's parliament recently passed a resolution to show its support for Taiwan's bid to participate in the WHO and its activities, Taiwan's representative in New Zealand said yesterday.
The Foreign Affairs, Defense and Trade Committee of the parliament passed the resolution last Friday. The resolution requests that the government support Taiwan's bid to join the WHA as an observer, Representatve Victor Chin (
The parliament passed the resolution based on an appeal made to the parliament last month by some 1,000 Taiwanese expatriates and New Zealand citizens, Chin said.
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
FIRST TRIAL: Ko’s lawyers sought reduced bail and other concessions, as did other defendants, but the bail judge denied their requests, citing the severity of the sentences Former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was yesterday sentenced to 17 years in prison and had his civil rights suspended for six years over corruption, embezzlement and other charges. Taipei prosecutors in December last year asked the Taipei District Court for a combined 28-year, six-month sentence for the four cases against Ko, who founded the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The cases were linked to the Core Pacific City (京華城購物中心) redevelopment project and the mismanagement of political donations. Other defendants convicted on separate charges included Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Angela Ying (應曉薇), who was handed a 15-year, six-month sentence; Core Pacific
J-6 REMODEL: The converted drones are part of Beijing’s expanding mix of airpower weapons, including bombers with stand-off missiles and UAV swarms, the report said China has stationed obsolete supersonic fighters converted to attack drones at six air bases close to the Taiwan Strait, a report published this month by the Arlington, Virginia-based Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies said. Satellite imagery of the airfields from the institute’s “China Airpower Tracker” shows what appear to be lines of stubby, swept-winged aircraft matching the shape of J-6 fighters that first flew with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force in the 1960s. Since their conversion to drones, the aircraft have been identified at five bases in China’s Fujian Province and one in Guangdong Province, the report said. J.
China used fake LinkedIn profiles to harvest sensitive data from NATO and EU institutions by soliciting information from staff, a European security source said on Friday. The operation, allegedly orchestrated by the Chinese Ministry of State Security, targeted dozens of employees at the military alliance or EU organizations through fictitious accounts, the source said, confirming reports in French and Belgian media. Posing as recruiters on the online professional networking platform, Chinese spies would initially request paid reports before later soliciting non-public or even classified information. One particularly active fake profile used the name “Kevin Zhang,” claiming to be the head
RSS