The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has done “too little, too late” to push for UN membership this year, the Taiwan United Nations Alliance said at a news conference at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday.
More than 20 alliance members, as well as Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus director-general Wu Ping-jui (吳秉叡) and DPP legislators Tsai Shih-ying (蔡適應) and Wang Ding-yu (王定宇), attended the event announcing the group’s annual trip to the US to promote UN membership for Taiwan ahead of the UN General Assembly this month.
“Even though the ministry has told us that it has written to our diplomatic allies to ask them to speak for us at the UN General Assembly, it did not include a request that they submit a motion for Taiwan to join the UN,” alliance president and former minister of national defense Michael Tsai (蔡明憲) said. “We will continue to try to fill the absence of government action, even though the force of our voices is limited and we do not understand why the government still refuses to act.”
Photo: Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times
Alliance members would seek to meet with US lawmakers and think tanks in Washington to urge the US to demand talks on Taiwan’s admission and to protest UN requirements that Taiwanese use identification documents issued by China for admission to the talks, he said.
The alliance is also to participate in a Sept. 16 protest in New York with Taiwanese expatriates to raise awareness of the issue, including a demonstration outside the Chinese consulate.
While former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) of the DPP strongly backed yearly campaigns to join the UN, official efforts lagged under former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), the group said, expressing disappointment that President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) of the DPP has failed to take “more proactive and effective action” since taking office.
Media reports that Environmental Protection Administration Minister Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) is to be sent to New York to promote Taiwan’s international environmental contributions would be a trip that is “too little, too late,” Michael Tsai said.
“When we are being oppressed by China, we should shout that it is not fair,” he said. “Not keeping quiet does not mean being a troublemaker.”
Separately, an anonymous government official cited the “highly political” nature of the UN and the government’s evaluation of the international and domestic environments as the major considerations behind deciding against asking diplomatic allies to submit a formal resolution.
Compared with professional organizations such as the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), “there is a significant difference in international support for joining the UN,” the official said, adding that it was important to pursue participation in ways that the international community felt “comfortable” with.
Tense cross-strait relations and the Chinese Communist Party’s national congress next month were also considerations, the official said.
While the government this year will not ask diplomatic allies to motion for Taiwan’s UN admission, it will ask them to voice three demands at the UN meeting: ameliorating the exclusion of Taiwanese from ICAO and the World Health Assembly; dropping requirements that Taiwanese use China-issued identification to visit the UN; and searching for appropriate means for Taiwan to participate in UN meetings on sustainable development goals.
Additional reporting by Peng Wan-hsin and CNA
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)