The Wild Bird Federation Taiwan (WBFT) has rejected repeated requests by BirdLife International, yielding to pressure from China, demanding the federation drop "Taiwan" from its name and plans to protest against the action.
WBFT chairman Kuo Tung-hui (郭東輝), Wild Bird Society of Taipei chairman Liu Hsin-pai (劉新白), and former BirdLife Asia division director Simon Liao (廖世卿) made their position clear during a meeting with Mou Hua-wei (牟華偉), Taiwan's representative to the UK in Cambridge on Thursday.
Kuo, Liu and Liao arrived in the UK last week to participate in the annual British Birdwatching Fair held near Cambridge.
The WBFT is a member of BirdLife International. Liu said the WBFT had been previously known as the "Chinese Wild Bird Association."
However, the federation was constantly mistaken for an organization from China when it participated for the first time in the British Birdwatching Fair in 1999, Liao said.
As a result, Liu said he proposed to change the English name of the federation to "Wild Bird Federation Taiwan" as recommended by former chairman of BirdLife International Gerard Bertrand.
However, after Bertrand finished his term, "current chairman Peter [Schei] decided to cater to the unreasonable requests [by asking the federation to drop the word `Taiwan' from its name,]" Liao said.
Schei did so with the intention of attracting Chinese participation in the organization, Liao said.
At the moment, there is no partnership between BirdLife International and any similar organization in China.
Liao said bird watchers in Taiwan will absolutely not accept BirdLife International's demands.
Kuo, Liao and Liu said they planned to protest at BirdLife International's headquarters in Cambridge during their stay.
The WBFT's situation is the latest of China's incessant moves to downgrade Taiwan groups' status in international organizations.
In May, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) adopted a draft resolution submitted by China at its International Committee's 75th general session in Paris to downgrade Taiwan's status to a "non-sovereign regional member."
China's proposal requets that Taiwan's title within the OIE be changed from "Taipei, China" to "Taiwan, China."
After mediation by the US and the EU, the motion was altered to have Taiwan's title changed to "Chinese Taipei," although the proposal to downgrade the country's status was not changed.
Taiwan became a member of the OIE in 1954 as the "Republic of China (Taiwan)," but it was forced to change its membership name to "Taipei, China" after China was admitted in 1992.
China remain unhappy with that appelation and has continued to push the OIE to alter it.
Additional reporting by staff writer
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai