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Staffer plays down Ma's WHA remarks

The Presidential Office yesterday tried to downplay expectations after reports that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said that the country might join the World Health Assembly (WHA) next year, adding that it was the administration’s policy to work toward that goal.

Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said that the aggressive approach adopted by the former Democratic Progressive Party administration over the past eight years had proven unfeasible and impractical.

With the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in power, a more flexible strategy will be used, Wang said.

The odds of joining the international body should be higher as a result of the new government’s approach, he said.

As Ma has said that “Chinese Taipei” would be a suitable name to apply to the body, Wang yesterday said that the proposed name was an option and that it could be the bottom line.

“But the bottom line is not necessarily the name we will use,” he said, adding that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would be responsible for mapping out a plan for application.

Wang made the remarks in response to reports published in several Chinese-language newspapers quoting Ma as saying that there should be hope for Taiwan to participate in the WHA next year. Ma made the remarks during a visit to the ministry on Monday.

Wang said yesterday that Ma was merely talking about the change of foreign policy and he expected to see the ministry formulate concrete measures and put them into practice.

Ma’s foreign policy of modus vivendi is working, Wang said, and improvements in cross-strait relations were proof.

Under a foreign policy based on “reconciliation” and “diplomatic truce” with Beijing and improvement of cross-strait relations, Wang said it was foreseeable that the odds of joining the WHA would better.

However, he did not mention the campaign to join the WHO.

Since 1997, Taiwan has sought to re-enter the organization by applying for observer status at the WHA, the supreme decision-making body of the WHO.

Hong Kong’s Wen Wei Po newspaper reported that China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Chairman Wang Yi (王毅) had said that although China would continue to block Taiwan’s applications to the WHO, it would look into setting up an international network that would be a “new framework” independent of the WHO to include Taiwan in information on disease outbreaks.

Ma announced last night during a state banquet held for Nauruan President Marcus Stephen that the third Taiwan-South Pacific Allies leaders’ summit will be canceled.

Citing “time constraints,” Ma said the event, scheduled to take place in Kaohsiung this year, will be held in the Solomon Islands next year.

The summit, established by former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), was first held in Palau in 2006.

The country has six Pacific allies.
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