Sha Zukang (
Speaking to Taiwanese reporters at the World Health Assembly (WHA), the WHO's highest decision-making body, Sha noted that the memorandum is the first China has ever signed with an international organization to handle the cross-strait problem.
The memorandum, signed by China and the WHO Secretariat last Saturday, stipulates that Taiwan has to apply for the WHO's technical assistance through China and that all exchanges between Taiwan and the WHO have to be approved by Beijing.
Neither China nor the WHO Secretariat consulted Taiwan over the contents of the memorandum, in which Taiwan is treated as a part of China. Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said it will never accept the memorandum if the document denigrates Taiwan's national status in any way.
Sha, however, argued that the contents of such memorandums are often kept secret.
"We will inform Taiwan of the details of the memo through proper channels in due course. We haven't done that yet," Sha said. "Only China and Taiwan can solve cross-strait problems."
Chinese Minister of Health Gao Qiang (高強) was to hold a press conference yesterday evening to explain the details of the memorandum.
The memorandum is significant for Taiwan because "diseases do not wait for political problems to be solved," Sha said.
Those comments were in marked contrast to Sha's harsh response to Taiwan's SARS problem in 2003. Two years ago, while Taiwan was struggling to contain the SARS epidemic, Sha snapped at Taiwanese reporters as they approached him in that year's WHA, saying: "Who cares about you?"
Meanwhile, a group of Taiwanese, including doctors, nurses and Aborigines, staged a protest yesterday morning outside the Palais des Nations in Geneva -- where the WHA is meeting -- against the WHO's isolation of Taiwan
Holding banners with slogans in several languages appealing for support for Taiwan's bid to join the WHO, the Taiwanese sang songs, including a song named Victory for Taiwan
It was cold and rainy in Geneva yesterday, but the bad weather did not douse the Taiwanese campaigners' passion for the WHO bid.
Members of the North America Taiwanese Women's Association (NATWA) also went to the Chinese embassy in Geneva around 30 minutes before the opening of the WHA to protest against China's obstruction of Taiwan's WHO bid.
They handed a letter to the embassy requesting that China relent in its opposition to Taiwan's bid. Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission Minister Chang Fu-mei (
"China always lies to the international community about how Beijing has taken care of the Taiwanese people's health. We feel very bad about that and hope China understands our feelings," Chang said.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
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