Environmental Protection Agency Minister Winston Dang (陳重信) said in Washington on Friday that he had exchanged ideas with his US counterparts on climate change issues despite Beijing's repeated protests.
Dang visited several environment and energy officials in Washington after leading a delegation to attend an annual Taiwan-US meeting on environmental protection in Hawaii.
BEIJING PROTESTS
Dang told a press conference held at the National Press Club that almost every US official he met told him they had received a protest from the Chinese embassy.
Dang noted that environmental issues are global issues and said they have "little to do with politics," adding that Beijing should not try to block environmental cooperation.
Describing Dang's visit as "successful," Stanley Kao (
Meanwhile, in an interview with Reuters, Dang said that Taiwan had concerns about airborne mercury and arsenic pollution from China, and would like to offer clean-up expertise to Beijing. However, Beijing's refusal to cooperate with Taiwan prevented that, he said.
`GLOBAL PROBLEM'
Dang said that China's pressure on UN agencies and other international organizations to shun Taiwan left the nation few avenues for global cooperation on environmental issues.
"China has to understand that this is not only Taiwan's problem, but that it's a global problem," Dang said.
A high-altitude monitoring station on Jade Mountain (
"If mercury is in food, you can refuse to eat it, but you can't refuse to breathe. It's a terrible thing," he said in an interview in Washington following informal talks with the US Environmental Protection Agency.
PREVIOUS PROBLEMS
Taiwan got a painful taste of Chinese environmental woes last year.
"Not only did China send SARS to Taiwan in 2003, last year we suffered dust storms so bad we couldn't open our eyes," Dang said.
He was referring to the deadly respiratory disease SARS, that spread from China to its neighbors.
Taiwan received no help from the WHO until the end of the SARS outbreak because Beijing blocked any cooperation between the WHO and Taiwan.
APEC
Dang said Taiwan might find a voice in one of the few international groups in which it is able to participate, APEC, which will hold its annual summit in Sydney, Australia, early next month.
"Hopefully through this APEC platform, Taiwan can [develop] an interconnection with international organizations," he said.
Taiwan will put forth a proposal called "Green APEC Opportunities" to deal with pollution, encourage cleaner manufacturing and increase household recycling, he said.
NEW BURDENS
Air pollution from China has put new burdens on Taiwan's health care system as asthma and other respiratory problems become more common, he said, adding that Taiwan, which has cleaned up its pollution considerably, could help China tackle its environmental woes.
"In the 1960s and 1970s, Taiwan paid a heavy price in the environment, and they are walking the same path," Dang said.
Dang also told reporters in a separate setting that he was skeptical about whether Beijing could clean its air before the Olympic Games next August.
HARD LESSON
Dang urged China to learn from Taiwan's experience. Taiwan has become a world leader in recycling and trash disposal, he said.
"We are ready to help them," said Dang, who worked at the US Environmental Protection Agency for 15 years before becoming a Taiwanese legislator and then minister.
"China has to realize that it's not just their problem. It's a global problem," he said.
Messages left with the Chinese embassy in Washington were not immediately returned.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant’s license has expired and it cannot simply be restarted, the Executive Yuan said today, ahead of national debates on the nuclear power referendum. The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County was disconnected from the nation’s power grid and completely shut down on May 17, the day its license expired. The government would prioritize people’s safety and conduct necessary evaluations and checks if there is a need to extend the service life of the reactor, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference. Lee said that the referendum would read: “Do
RSS