Leaked US cables cast doubt on statements made by President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration that Taiwan’s presence at the World Health Assembly (WHA) was a result of direct communication with the WHO and that Taiwan’s designation as “Chinese Taipei” was acceptable and did not infringe on Taiwanese sovereignty.
Instead, the cables released by WikiLeaks suggest Beijing’s heavy involvement in the matter, with its insistence that Taiwan’s international participation be based on the “one China” principle.
For three consecutive years since 2009, Taiwan has taken part in the annual WHA meeting as an observer under the name “Chinese Taipei.” While Ma’s government has hailed the participation in the WHA as a major diplomatic achievement, it has been clouded by accusations that it has eroded Taiwan’s sovereignty.
Recent evidence came in May following the leak of an internal memo from the WHO, in which it said Taiwan is a “province of China” pursuant to an agreement the WHO signed with Beijing. The Ma administration sent a letter of protest in May, but to date the WHO has yet to respond.
US cables released by WikiLeaks recently provide more insight into what it took for Taiwan to be able to take part in WHA meetings.
In a confidential cable dated Dec. 24, 2008, the US embassy in Beijing quoted Taiwan Affairs Office Minister Wang Yi (王毅) as saying that “Taiwan’s international space, particularly [its] participation in the WHA, should be worked out on the basis of the ‘one China’ principle and through direct consultations between the Mainland and Taiwan.”
Wang was quoted in the cable as saying that Taiwan’s attendance at the WHA must rely on “cross-strait consultation” to find the “most suitable arrangement.”
Earlier the same year, Wang told visiting US academics on Oct. 31 that WHO Director-General Margaret Chan (陳馮富珍) could invite Taiwan to “participate” in the WHA meeting, but this would not give Taiwan “legal observer” status, according to a cable dated Dec. 5, 2008.
“Any progress that could be made on the WHO/WHA issue by next May in the absence of direct negotiations between China and Taiwan would be something short of formal observership,” the same cable quoted Chinese officials as saying.
In another cable dated March 24, 2009, the US embassy in Beijing said that its contacts were unanimous in predicting that there would be “a new arrangement” allowing Taiwan to participate in the WHA in May after Wang said in a CCTV interview on March 11 that he was “cautiously optimistic” about Taiwan’s participation in the UN agency because both sides now agreed to “oppose Taiwan independence” and uphold the “[19]92 consensus.”
Despite the fact that the WHA issue had not been put on the table in cross-strait negotiations shortly after Ma took office in May 2008, several cables issued by the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) showed that many Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) figures brought up the subject with Chinese officials.
According to a cable dated Dec. 24, 2008, then-KMT vice chairman and Legislator John Chiang (蔣孝嚴) told the AIT that former vice president and KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) had raised the WHO issue in his meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) at the APEC meeting in November in Peru.
Lien was then Ma’s envoy to the APEC summit.
Hu responded by suggesting “Taiwan send someone to talk to PRC [People’s Republic of China] officials” and pointed to the KMT-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) forum, the cable said, also quoting Chiang as offering AIT officers a readout of a recording of the Dec. 20-21 KMT-CCP forum in Shanghai.
Chiang also told the AIT that he had discussed the issue with Wang at the forum and he was confident that Taiwan would be able to attend the WHA meeting in May 2009 in some “mutually acceptable status,” the cable showed.
Meanwhile, a cable dated Dec. 22, 2008, showed that the AIT noted that Ma tried to “lower public expectations” about the country’s participation in the WHA when he gave an interview with the Washington Post on Dec. 9, in which he said that “Taiwan just wanted to attend the WHA meeting. We are not asking for anything more.”
“This seemed a step back from Ma’s May statement that his goal was to secure WHO observer status under an appropriate name,” the AIT said in the cable.
Another AIT cable dated May 8, 2009, showed that then-AIT director Stephen Young was told by Ma on May 7 that Taiwan plans to focus on participation in WHA and WHO activities for the present and not to push to join other international organizations.
Taiwan will proceed cautiously because Beijing is worried the WHA observership breakthrough could produce a domino effect, the AIT said in the cable.
During the meeting, Ma attributed Taiwan’s success in joining the WHA to three factors. First, domestic efforts by the Democratic Progressive Party and past health ministers; second, senior KMT leaders, including Lien and former KMT chairman Wu Po-hsiung (吳伯雄), who mentioned the issue to Hu; and third, international support from the US, EU, Japan and others, the cable said.
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Yilan at 11:05pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter was located at sea, about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km, CWA data showed There were no immediate reports of damage. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Yilan County area on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. It measured 4 in other parts of eastern, northern and central Taiwan as well as Tainan, and 3 in Kaohsiung and Pingtung County, and 2 in Lienchiang and Penghu counties and 1
FOREIGN INTERFERENCE: Beijing would likely intensify public opinion warfare in next year’s local elections to prevent Lai from getting re-elected, the ‘Yomiuri Shimbun’ said Internal documents from a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company indicated that China has been using the technology to intervene in foreign elections, including propaganda targeting Taiwan’s local elections next year and presidential elections in 2028, a Japanese newspaper reported yesterday. The Institute of National Security of Vanderbilt University obtained nearly 400 pages of documents from GoLaxy, a company with ties to the Chinese government, and found evidence that it had apparently deployed sophisticated, AI-driven propaganda campaigns in Hong Kong and Taiwan to shape public opinion, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. GoLaxy provides insights, situation analysis and public opinion-shaping technology by conducting network surveillance
‘POLITICAL GAME’: DPP lawmakers said the motion would not meet the legislative threshold needed, and accused the KMT and the TPP of trivializing the Constitution The Legislative Yuan yesterday approved a motion to initiate impeachment proceedings against President William Lai (賴清德), saying he had undermined Taiwan’s constitutional order and democracy. The motion was approved 61-50 by lawmakers from the main opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who together hold a legislative majority. Under the motion, a roll call vote for impeachment would be held on May 19 next year, after various hearings are held and Lai is given the chance to defend himself. The move came after Lai on Monday last week did not promulgate an amendment passed by the legislature that
AFTERMATH: The Taipei City Government said it received 39 minor incident reports including gas leaks, water leaks and outages, and a damaged traffic signal A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Taiwan’s northeastern coast late on Saturday, producing only two major aftershocks as of yesterday noon, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The limited aftershocks contrast with last year’s major earthquake in Hualien County, as Saturday’s earthquake occurred at a greater depth in a subduction zone. Saturday’s earthquake struck at 11:05pm, with its hypocenter about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km. Shaking was felt in 17 administrative regions north of Tainan and in eastern Taiwan, reaching intensity level 4 on Taiwan’s seven-tier seismic scale, the CWA said. In Hualien, the
RSS