Minister of Health and Welfare-designate Lin Tzou-yien (林奏延) is to attend the annual World Health Assembly (WHA) on behalf of the incoming Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government, despite the invitation’s stipulation that Taiwan’s participation should be in accordance with the “one China” principle and UN Resolution 2758, future Cabinet spokesperson Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) said yesterday.
“The [incoming] government will not be absent from the WHA, and is to appoint Lin as the representative,” Tung told a news conference at the DPP’s headquarters in Taipei yesterday. “However, our participation does not mean that we accept the conditions proposed by the WHO secretariat, and we think it is unnecessary for the WHO to make the stipulation.”
Whether the government should send a representative to the meeting has caused controversy because it is the first time since Taiwan began participating in the WHA under the name “Chinese Taipei” in 2009 that it has received an invitation mentioning the “one China” principle and UN Resolution No. 2758, which was passed on Oct. 25, 1971, and recognized the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as “the only legitimate representative of China to the UN.”
Photo: Huang Yao-cheng, Taipei Times
Tung said that according to the WHO charter, the right to health is a fundamental and universal right, and that is why Taiwan would contribute to the WHO.
“The right of Taiwanese to fully participate in the international community should not be restricted by any political framework,” Tung said. “Therefore, the ‘one China’ principle based on UN Resolution 2758 added to the invitation issued by the WHO secretariat has no connection to Taiwan’s participation in the WHA.”
Thefore, the DPP has asked the government to continue to negotiate with the WHO over the “unnecessary connection” between Taiwan’s participation and the “one China” principle and requested that the Ministry of Health and Welfare clarify the stance in its reply to the WHO.
In related news, Vice President Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) yesterday shrugged off the controversy over the unprecedented “one China” proviso attached to the WHA invitation, saying Beijing is allowed to have its own interpretation of what “China” means under the so-called “1992 consensus.”
“The consensus states that both sides acknowledge there is one China, with each side having its own interpretation of what ‘China’ means. It is this consensus, along with [President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) pledges of] no independence, no unification and no use of force, that have allowed cross-strait ties to move from confrontation to peaceful development,” Wu said.
The “1992 consensus” — a term former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) admitted making up in 2000 — is a tacit understanding reached between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese government in 1992 that both sides of the Taiwan Strait acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
Wu said he was once asked by lawmakers during a legislative question-and-answer session when he served as premier why Chen Yunlin (陳雲林), then-chairman of China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, did not interpret “China” as the Republic of China (ROC) when he visited Taiwan.
“We should just let them [Beijing] have their own interpretation of what ‘China’ means and we could also have ours... This is the essence of the consensus of ‘one China, with different interpretations,’” Wu said.
Separately yesterday, DPP Legislator Wang Ding-yu (王定宇) of the Democratic Progressive Party launched an online poll on Facebook to gauge what Taiwanese think is the best solution to the WHA conundrum.
“We all know that domestically, Ma’s administration has confined Taiwan with the ‘1992 consensus’ illusion, while singing in chorus with Beijing’s ‘one China’ principle on the outside… The government and its people now have three options — which one do you think will be the best for Taiwan’s future?” Wang wrote.
The options Wang offered are: attending the WHA for the sake of Taiwan’s international space, but lodging a stern protest during the meeting; attending the WHA without taking any measures to safeguard Taiwan’s sovereignty; or refusing to attend the conference as a way of rejecting the “one China” proviso.
As of press time last night, netizens were divided between the first and third options.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS