Five lawmakers who went to the World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva yesterday criticized China for obstructing Taiwan's bid to become a World Health Organization (WHO) observer.
"We deeply regret that the mission has not yet been completed, but we must protest against the lies of the Chinese delegation at the assembly," DPP Legislator Parris Chang (
TSU Legislator John Wang (王振中), who represents overseas Chinese, flew from the US to join the five-member delegation of KMT and DPP lawmakers that traveled to Geneva to lobby for the bid.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
Chang said Beijing owed the people of Taiwan an apology for its irrational objections to Taiwan becoming a WHO observer.
He said the nation should consider dubbing next year's campaign to be an observer at the WHO as "big lies" to demonstrate the country's resentment over China's obstructionist tactics.
KMT Legislator Sun Kuo-hwa (
"The delegation members tomorrow will demand that the Executive Yuan draft the official response and correction to the Chinese vice premier's false claim that Beijing has been supervising Taiwan in controlling the SARS outbreak," he said.
Sun said he was confident the country would succeed one day in becoming a WHO observer.
"By witnessing the efforts of the Department of Health and other ministries in the bid this time, I am convinced that the country will achieve the goal of entering the WHO as long as we continue to work for it," he said.
DPP Legislator Chien Chao-tung (
"Wu's claim about sending 1,000 sets of SARS kits to Taiwan was a lie," Chien said.
"She even tried to make out that ordinary professional exchanges between medical experts on both sides of the strait before the epidemic were actually evidence of cross-strait cooperation in battling the disease," Chien said.
Chien urged lawmakers from all parties to be more cautious in promoting cross-strait exchanges, which Beijing could describe as evidence of unification.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS