Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Michael Kau (
Kau made the comment at the Legislature's Foreign and Overseas Compatriot's Affairs Committee in response to a question from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (
Kau said that since last year, the WHO has begun to allow the "meaningful participation" of countries which are not members of the WHO and that China has also signed a memorandum of understanding with the WHO to allow for Taiwan's participation in certain technical activities.
The vice minister said that the reason he remained conservative about Taiwan's chances was because of the frustration caused by failed applications over the last three years.
Even so, Kau said his ministry will continue to push for Taiwan to be granted observer status at the WHO.
He said that the foreign ministry is currently trying to get Taiwan invited to participate in bird flu prevention meetings slated to take place in Tokyo and Beijing later this month.
Deputy Director of the International Organization Department Daniel Liao (
Liao said that in previous years, Taiwan's diplomatic allies had made the proposal on Taiwan's behalf. However, this year none of Taiwan's diplomatic allies are members of the EB and therefore, the ministry is exploring other means of raising the issue.
If it proves impossible to make the bid at this month's EB meeting, Taiwan will try again at the World Health Assembly in May, Liao added.
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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