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.
Three batches of banana sauce imported from the Philippines were intercepted at the border after they were found to contain the banned industrial dye Orange G, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. From today through Sept. 2 next year, all seasoning sauces from the Philippines are to be subject to the FDA’s strictest border inspection, meaning 100 percent testing for illegal dyes before entry is allowed, it said in a statement. Orange G is an industrial coloring agent that is not permitted for food use in Taiwan or internationally, said Cheng Wei-chih (鄭維智), head of the FDA’s Northern Center for
LOOKING NORTH: The base would enhance the military’s awareness of activities in the Bashi Channel, which China Coast Guard ships have been frequenting, an expert said The Philippine Navy on Thursday last week inaugurated a forward operating base in the country’s northern most province of Batanes, which at 185km from Taiwan would be strategically important in a military conflict in the Taiwan Strait. The Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted Northern Luzon Command Commander Lieutenant General Fernyl Buca as saying that the base in Mahatao would bolster the country’s northern defenses and response capabilities. The base is also a response to the “irregular presence this month of armed” of China Coast Guard vessels frequenting the Bashi Channel in the Luzon Strait just south of Taiwan, the paper reported, citing a
UNDER PRESSURE: The report cited numerous events that have happened this year to show increased coercion from China, such as military drills and legal threats The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) aims to reinforce its “one China” principle and the idea that Taiwan belongs to the People’s Republic of China by hosting celebratory events this year for the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, the “retrocession” of Taiwan and the establishment of the UN, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said in its latest report to the Legislative Yuan. Taking advantage of the significant anniversaries, Chinese officials are attempting to assert China’s sovereignty over Taiwan through interviews with international news media and cross-strait exchange events, the report said. Beijing intends to reinforce its “one China” principle
A total lunar eclipse, an astronomical event often referred to as a “blood moon,” would be visible to sky watchers in Taiwan starting just before midnight on Sunday night, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said. The phenomenon is also called “blood moon” due to the reddish-orange hue it takes on as the Earth passes directly between the sun and the moon, completely blocking direct sunlight from reaching the lunar surface. The only light is refracted by the Earth’s atmosphere, and its red wavelengths are bent toward the moon, illuminating it in a dramatic crimson light. Describing the event as the most important astronomical phenomenon
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