Representatives from three of the nation’s diplomatic allies on Saturday voiced their governments’ support for Taiwan’s participation in the World Health Assembly (WHA) at a WHO executive board meeting.
The government this year decided not to press its allies to submit a proposal on Taiwan’s WHA participation at the meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, but Eswatini, Haiti and Paraguay said that Taiwan had a role to play in the WHA.
Haitian Ambassador Pierre Andre Dunbar, his nation’s permanent representative to the UN and other international organizations in Geneva, said no country should be excluded from the WHA.
The exclusion of any country from the WHA would create a missing link in the global healthcare system, Dunbar said.
Paraguayan Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Julio Cesar Peralta Rodas used the cooperation between Paraguay and Taiwan to highlight Taiwan’s contributions in the healthcare field.
The Health Information Management Efficiency Enhancement Project, agreed upon in 2016, has been introduced in 23 healthcare facilities in Paraguay, helping them provide better quality and more efficient health services, he said.
Swazi Ministry of Health Principal Secretary Simon Zwane praised Taiwan’s technical assistance to his country and called it “a country that successfully attained universal health coverage.”
With Taiwan’s help, Eswatini has improved its maternal and child health outcomes by strengthening its primary health care system, so his government believes that Taiwan’s expertise and “best practices in this area” should be shared worldwide to enrich this global approach, he said.
Eswatini is on the WHO’s 34-member Executive Board, but non-members such as Haiti and Paraguay are allowed to speak at such meetings with the consent of the board’s chairman.
The board meeting opened on Thursday and is scheduled to run through Friday.
Taiwan attended the WHA as an observer under the name Chinese Taipei from 2009 to 2016, but since 2017, China has blocked the WHO from inviting Taiwan to attend.
However, Taiwan sent delegations to Geneva in 2017 and last year to meet with officials from countries participating in the WHA and to protest Taiwan’s exclusion.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique