As Taiwanese groups are to launch their lobbying campaign for Taiwan's World Health Organization (WHO) bid this week in Germany, the German Federal Foreign Office told the Taipei Times last week that Germany will continue following the EU position on the issue.
However, the EU policy regarding Taiwan issues has always been in accordance with the "one China" principle, according to Rainer Schlageter, Director General of Communication and Information under the Foreign Office.
"I'm afraid that we might stay with the EU stance," Schlageter said.
In principle, the EU does not support Taiwan's membership in organizations such as WHO.
Alexander Nowak, a German official in charge of communication and information at the Foreign Office, told the Taipei Times that in fact there is no national "German" position, but only the EU position.
"On the other hand, we strongly feel that all people should be allowed to have access to the highest level of medical care, as set out in the WHO's Constitution. Therefore, the EU is in favor of finding pragmatic solutions in order to strengthen the technical co-operation of WHO with Taiwan," Nowak said.
A Taiwanese group composed of activists, medical professionals and legislators will begin to lobby in Berlin this week. According to lobby leader Wu Shuh-min (
Wu told the Taipei Times that Germans tend to address public issues based on their sense of justice, which would not necessarily support the government's stance.
Taiwanese lobbyists will further urge the World Health Assembly (WHA), the WHO's supreme decision-making body, to support Taiwan in getting the observership it seeks.
In addition to reviewing the Proposed Program Budget for 2006-2007, the WHA will discuss a revision of the International Health Regulations (IHR) and a draft global immunization strategy.
Officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said earlier this month that Taiwan would like to be included in the IHR, through which a window of communication with the WHO Secretariat can be established in Taiwan.
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:
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