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.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
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