China yesterday accused Taiwan of harboring ulterior motives in its recent failed attempt to join the World Health Organization (WHO) as an observer.
"What we are on guard against and are opposed to is Taiwan using the excuse of joining the WHO to carry out separatist activities or trying to create two Chinas or one China, one Taiwan," said Li Weiyi (李維一), a spokesman for China's Taiwan Affairs Office.
"This is to say their real purpose for joining the WHO is not for Taiwanese compatriots' rights to health but for political motives," Li told a monthly press conference.
China this month succeeded in pressing the WHO to defeat the seventh attempt by Taiwan to gain observer status in the global health body.
Taiwan has strongly criticized the move as it battles rising numbers of SARS infections, and has rejected Beijing's offers for medical aid and assistance.
Li yesterday called Taiwan's refusal to accept help from Beijing "very regrettable."
"I think Taiwan authorities are using politics to see everything," Li said. "Cross-strait compatriots are flesh and blood compatriots. Mutual concern is sincere."
He said China had selected highly experienced medical workers from Guangdong Province and Beijing hospitals who are ready to go to Taiwan at any time to help.
At the same time, he said, China welcomes Taiwanese SARS experts.
Li also rejected Taiwan's allegation that China was trying to diminish its role within the WTO.
Taipei officials said China had pressured the WTO into requesting that Taiwan start referring to its "office" instead of "permanent mission" and that it refrain from using "ambassador" and other diplomatic titles for officials.
Li said China makes a distinction between Taiwan using international organizations to promote separatism and Taiwan going through civil groups to get information it needs from the organizations.
"What we are opposed to is Taiwan's authorities carrying out separatist activities in the name of Taiwanese people. [But] we've always cared about Taiwanese compatriots and we are sincere," Li said.
He said China has invited Taiwan to join its delegation attending WHO health meetings, such as the upcoming meeting in Malaysia next month and a SARS meeting to be held in Beijing next month for ASEAN member states plus China, Japan and South Korea.
Li acknowledged that SARS has had an impact on cross-straits trade, but he said the effect will be "short-term" since the timing of the outbreak and the areas affected are limited.
"With the control of the disease situation, I believe trade will very quickly return to normal," Li said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater