China’s decision on whether to allow Taiwan to gain observer status at the World Health Assembly (WHA) next May could be a “turning point” in cross-strait relations, a leading US academic of Chinese affairs said in Washington on Tuesday, adding she was pessimistic China would act favorably toward Taiwan on the issue.
Bonnie Glaser, a senior fellow at Washington’s Center for Strategic & International Studies, made the comment while introducing a major study she co-authored on how Taiwan and China can reduce tensions and improve communication with confidence-building measures.
“Next May is a turning point,” she said, referring to the annual meeting of the WHA in Geneva, the premier gathering of the members of the WHO, in which Taiwan has been seeking to gain observer status for more than a dozen years.
“President Ma [Ying-jeou (馬英九)] has made this essentially a litmus test of Chinese sincerity on this issue,” Glaser said.
However, during a trip to Beijing in April as part of research for the study, Glaser said she found “there is lack of appreciation for how important this issue is for the people of Taiwan and how this can send cross-strait relations southward” if “China does not respond more positively.”
“My view,” she said, “is that China should be more magnanimous on this issue to win over the hearts and minds of the people of Taiwan on this critically important issue.”
Glaser is one of Washington’s leading experts on Chinese attitudes toward Taiwan and is respected among Chinese academics and officials.
While many Taiwan supporters view Glaser as pro-China, others have argued that she is non-partisan in her analysis of cross-strait relations.
Glaser said China’s reluctance on the WHA issue was that Beijing “has problems with giving Taiwan some participation that will address some of Taiwan’s concerns without giving away the story, and without giving Taiwan participation in organizations that require sovereignty for membership.”
“The mainland is studying what implications it would have if it were to permit Taiwan to have observer status in the WHA ... They [are] concerned about setting a precedent and that Taiwan will want to be an observer everywhere. So, they’re concerned about the slippery slope,” she said.
Nevertheless, Glaser said she did not expect the issue to progress soon.
It will not, for instance, be a topic at the December cross-strait meeting that will bring Chen Yunlin (陳雲林), the chairman of China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait, to Taiwan.
“As we approach May, the possibility of some resolution may become rather remote,” Glaser said.
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
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
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
HOSPITALITY HIT: Hotels in Hualien have an occupancy rate of 10 percent, down from 30 percent before the earthquake, a Tourism Administration official said The Executive Yuan yesterday unveiled a stimulus package of vouchers and subsidies to revive tourism in Hualien County following a quake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale. The tremor on April 3, which killed at least 17 people and left two others missing, caused the county an estimated NT$3 billion (US$92.7 million) in damages. The Ministry of Economic Affairs is to issue vouchers worth NT$200 at the price of NT$100 for purchases at the Dongdamen Night Market (東大門夜市) in Hualien City to boost spending, a ministry official told a news conference after a Cabinet meeting in Taipei. The ministry plans to issue 18,400