President-elect Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) said yesterday that he favored a bid for the country’s World Health Assembly (WHA) observer status with the name “Chinese Taipei.”
“There is no better name than ‘Chinese Taipei’ for the moment,” Ma said in an interview with the state-owned Central News Agency (CNA) yesterday.
The WHA, the WHO’s governing body, is scheduled to open May 19 in Geneva, one day before Ma’s inauguration. It is seen as the first crucial test of the relationship between China and Ma’s administration.
Government Information Office Minister Shieh Jhy-wey (謝志偉) said last week that applying to become an observer at the WHA is this year’s “first priority,” and the name the country should use had yet to be determined.
But Ma told the CNA yesterday that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) had recently asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to prepare a bid to apply for WHO full membership under the name Taiwan.
Ma said he strongly opposed the idea of application for full membership under the name Taiwan, a strategy the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government adopted last year. Ma referred to the DPP’s approach as a “total embarrassment,” that resulted in a WHO delegate of an allied country avoiding the vote on the application under the pretext of having diarrhea.
“It is expected that applying for WHO membership in the name ‘Taiwan’ is doomed to fail. It’s unfair to us that Chen gave such an order,” Ma said, adding the DPP government is stepping down soon and it should not push hard for the WHO full membership proposal under the name Taiwan.
When asked about the name issue in the interview yesterday, Ma said, “Has there been any success [in joining international organizations] by using any names other than ‘Chinese Taipei?’ Except for the even worse ‘Taipei, China,’ is there a more acceptable name than ‘Chinese Taipei?’”
Referring to the title Taiwan uses in the International Olympic Committee and the WTO, Ma said he believes that “Chinese Taipei” is workable, noting that even Beijing has not objected to that name.
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