Taiwanese experts were yesterday abruptly blocked from attending the World Meteorological Congress in Geneva, Switzerland, reportedly due to Chinese pressure.
Weatherrisk Explore Inc (天氣風險管理開發) general manager Peng Chi-ming (彭啟明) and Civil IoT Taiwan information platform convener Lu Chung-chin (呂忠津) were denied entry to the conference room that hosted the congress, which is held every four years, Civil IoT Taiwan wrote on Facebook. It began on Monday last week and runs through Friday.
Peng and Lu had earlier this week joined the meeting as civic observers, but their accreditation was abruptly canceled, it wrote, adding that it suspects that World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Assistant Secretary-General Zhang Wenjian (張文健) was behind the move.
Photo courtesy of Peng Chi-ming
“It is very uncomfortable to encounter such a situation on the spot in Geneva, just as a healthy person is suddenly told that he has cancer,” Peng wrote on Facebook on his way back to Taiwan.
He has Chinese friends working in the profession and they can respect each other’s values, Peng said, adding that he believes the “irrational move” was made by just a few people.
He wants to tell whoever is responsible that “although you have some power, you are losing people’s respect,” Peng wrote.
Taiwan’s representative office in Geneva had asked like-minded countries to express concern over a likely incident to the WMO, but the organization still succumbed to Beijing’s pressure, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
It condemned Beijing for impeding Taiwanese experts from participating in international exchanges in professional affairs and expressed regret over the WMO’s failure to stand firm.
The Chinese government has been imposing its fictitious “one China” principle on global organizations and businesses to the level of insanity, and does not even spare international cooperation in health, climate and disaster prevention, it said.
It would continue demanding that UN-affiliated agencies rectify their biased measures against Taiwanese, the ministry added.
Chinese obstructionism is increasingly felt in global meetings on atmospheric sciences, National Taiwan University Department of Atmospheric Sciences chair Lin Po-hsiung (林博雄) said.
He attended the WMO-backed Technical Conference on Meteorological and Environmental Instruments and Methods of Observation in Belgium in 2012, but did not sign up for its last year’s edition, as Taiwan’s country code has disappeared from its application system, so he only sat in on some speeches, instead of attending as a Chinese, he said.
Taiwan has been filing its weather data with WMO’s Global Telecommunication System through an information exchange center in Tokyo, instead of Beijing, he said.
Information gathered through the Formosat-3 and Formosat-7 satellite constellations — which are Taiwan-US collaborative programs — is processed through the US, he said.
Taiwan should continue working with the US or Europe in atmospheric observations, as well as promoting joint weather studies and disaster prevention with diplomatic allies and Southeast Asian countries, Lin said.
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
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
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
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