Last month Taiwan was removed from the list of countries appearing on the Web site of the New York-based organization Human Rights Watch. Prior to the removal, Taiwan had appeared under the “Asia” rubric of the site. At present, 23 countries are listed in the “Asia” section, with China and Tibet appearing under the same head.
Other prominent rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders, continue to monitor Taiwan and have in recent weeks published reports on such matters as excessive use of force by police and threats to the independence of the media.
Human Rights Watch wrote on its Web site that: “In assessing trouble spots, we take into consideration the severity of the crimes being committed, the numbers of those affected and our potential to have impact.”
Taiwan has been listed throughout the 2000s, although reports of human rights violations were scarce. Its removal coincided with warnings by rights watchdogs, religious organizations, non-profit organizations, academics and various governments of possible human rights violations by the Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) administration.
Requests from the Taipei Times for comment by Human Rights Watch on the removal have not been answered.
In related news, Taiwan was found listed as “Taipei China” on the World Organization for Animal Health’s (OIE) Web site for its newsletter subscription registration form.
Contacted by the Taipei Times for comment, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) official yesterday said Taiwan’s rights in the OIE were not in jeopardy despite the use of “Taipei China” in the country listing for registration on its Web site.
MOFA officials said it was aware of the use of “Taipei China” on the OIE’s Web site and had been working with the group to change it.
The ministry would look into why the country listing in the registration form had not been changed and would inform the OIE about it, officials said.
On the rest of the OIE Web site, Taiwan, one of the 172 members, is listed as Taipei (Chinese). It also uses “Chinese Taipei” in the section pertaining to animal-related diseases in different regions.
MOFA Deputy Spokesman James Chang (章司平) yesterday said it was a technical issue because the group probably had not had time to change all references to “Chinese Taipei.”
Taiwan was admitted to the OIE in 1954 under the name “The Republic of China (Taiwan)” but was later forced to change its designation to “Taipei China” after the People’s Republic of China (PRC) became an official member in 1992.
Last year, Taiwan’s OIE membership name was changed again to “Chinese Taipei.”
Chang said Taiwan agreed to the new moniker in an effort to “cooperate with other member-countries” for the sake of animal health issues.
However, when the change was made last year, the foreign ministry under the Democratic Progressive Party administration lodged a protest against the Paris-based group, saying the change was a political maneuver by Beijing to sabotage Taiwan’s international status.
Last year, Beijing not only urged the OIE to change Taiwan’s designation to “Taiwan, China”— saying that the PRC was the sole legal government representative of China, including Taiwan. It also proposed to downgrade Taiwan’s status from a full member to a “non-sovereign regional member.”
After intervention from the US and the EU, it was decided to change Taiwan’s membership name to “Chinese Taipei” but the downgrade proposal was implemented.
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
Taiwan is still in the process of assessing the possibility of recruiting workers from Eswatini, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, adding that its goal is to help Eswatini upgrade its vocational training centers. If there are plans to recruit workers from Eswatini, safeguarding national security, protecting public health and ensuring the employment rights of Taiwanese would be prerequisites, Department of West Asian and African Affairs Director-General Yen Chia-liang (顏嘉良) told a news conference. Key considerations would also include filling labor shortages in specific industries, and fostering bilateral professional and technical exchanges, he said. Yen was asked about the progress of labor
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
WARNING: China should stop engaging in actions that undermine regional peace and stability, as it would only build resentment among people across the Strait, the CGA said China has deployed more than 100 navy, coast guard and other vessels in waters from the Yellow Sea to the South China Sea and the western Pacific since US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) met in Beijing, National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said yesterday. “In this part of the world, #China is the one & only PROBLEM wrecking the #StatusQuo & threatening regional peace & stability,” Wu wrote on X. In a separate post, he said Beijing was coercing Taiwan’s maritime domain, calling it illegal and provocative, after the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) expelled a
RSS