With the first leaders' summit between Taiwan and its African allies set to begin today, President Chen Shui-bian (
Before meeting Swazi King Mswati III, Chen witnessed the signing of a memorandum of agreement on medical cooperation between Taiwan and the Southern African country.
Under the pact, Taiwan will dispatch a medical mission to Swaziland to help relieve the shortage of medical staff in the kingdom and improve its health care standards.
PHOTO: CNA
This is King Mswati III's 10th visit since being crowned in April 1986. Taiwan and Swaziland established diplomatic ties in 1968, when King Mswati III was born.
Chen yesterday congratulated the monarch for democratic achievements since the 1990s, when he first allowed political reforms and greater democracy.
Chen also thanked the kingdom's representative to the UN for helping present Taiwan's application for UN membership.
Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika said that Taiwan, although small, has every right to become a member of the UN, and that his country would continue to support Taiwan's effort to join the UN and other international organizations.
Gambian Vice President Isatou Njie-Saidy, who will attend the summit on behalf of President Yahya A.J.J. Jammeh, said that her country would continue to support Taiwan's participation in the international community and speak in favor of Taiwan joining the UN at the body's General Assembly next month.
Describing Taiwan as a "family" and "brother," Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore restated his country's firm support for Taiwan and pledged to continue speaking out for Taiwan's rights in the international arena.
Leaders of the five African allies will sign a joint declaration supporting Taiwan's UN bid at the close of the summit.
Taiwan's diplomatic allies in Africa are Malawi, Swaziland, Gambia, Burkina Faso and Sao Tome and Principe.
China yesterday blasted the summit between Taiwan and its African allies.
"We strongly oppose it," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu (姜瑜) said yesterday.
"The real purpose of hosting these so-called summits by the government of Chen Shui-bian is not to support the development of Africa and seek benefit for the Taiwanese people," Jiang said in a statement posted on the ministry's Web site. "It is for the personal gain of individuals and the political party and it attempts to carry out `Taiwan independence' secessionist activities internationally, so as to ... damage friendly ties between China and Africa."
Last year, China rolled out the red carpet for leaders from almost 50 African nations for the first summit between Chinese and African officials, showcasing a vigorous relationship centered around oil and aid.
"The success of the China-Africa cooperation summit last year in Beijing pushed ties to a new phase of development," Jiang said. "The move by the Chen Shui-bian government to push forward secessionist activities by using the Taiwan-Africa summit runs counter to the general trend of the times."
"This attempt cannot succeed," she said.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
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:
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not