The Government Information Office (GIO) yesterday unveiled a new advertisement to promote the nation's bid to participate in the WHO.
On the advertisement, WHO is written as "WHC," with the "C" representing an incomplete "O" to deliver the message that as Taiwan is not yet a member, the organization is not complete.
"As you can see, on the advertisement, WHO is written as `WHC' because Taiwan is not in the organization so the `O' is not complete," GIO deputy minister William Yih (
PHOTO: LIAO CHEN-HUEI, TAIPEI TIMES
The WHO Secretariat rejected Taiwan's latest bid to participate in the organization on April 25 after President Chen Shui-bian (
The World Health Assembly (WHA), the highest decision-making body of the WHO, will hold a meeting in Geneva starting on May 14.
Yih said the GIO will place the advert in the Financial Times and International Herald Tribune newspapers on May 12 and May 13, on the eve of the WHA meeting.
"We believe these two newspapers are available in most hotels where delegates attending the meetings will stay. Therefore, placing the advertisement in the newspapers will be the best way to deliver our message," he said.
Meanwhile, shouting "WHO, Taiwan Go Go Go!" next to the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), a group of activists yesterday presented a petition to the institute and urged the US to support the country's efforts to seek full WTO membership using the name "Taiwan."
The WHO Secretariat's rejection of Taiwan's bid to join the organization under the name Taiwan ignored the health rights of the people of Taiwan and created a hole in the global health net, the group said.
"Taiwan is the only country excluded from the WHO and it is due to China's obstruction. The health rights of its 23 million citizens are neglected and its absence also damages the rights of foreign people living or traveling here," vice president of the alliance Twu Shiing-jer (涂醒哲) said.
After singing a Taiwanese folk song called "Mending the Net" (
AIT press officer Lawrence Walker received the petition while urging Taiwan to focus on meaningful participation in the WHO.
Twu and the Reverend William Lo (羅榮光), secretary general of the group, protested against Walker's remarks, arguing that Taiwan should enjoy the right to apply for full WHO membership as a sovereign state.
"Meaningful participation is meaningless. China gets to decide what kind of participation is meaningful for Taiwan, and we've never had a meaningful participation in the WHO due to China's obstruction," Twu said.
Twu said the alliance would invite the Presidential Office to write letters to foreign countries to protest the WHO rejection.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
The Republic of China Army Command yesterday relieved Kinmen Defense Battalion commander after authorities indicted the officer on charges connected to using methamphetamine. The Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Wednesday detained Colonel He (何) after the Coast Guard linked him to drug shipments and proceeded to charge him yesterday for using and possessing crystal meth. The man was released on a NT$50,000 bail and banned from leaving Kinmen, the office said. Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Chen Chien-yi (陳建義) told a news conference yesterday that He has been removed and another officer is taking over the unit as the acting commander. The military
RSS