President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) promised yesterday to push for admission of the country’s Red Cross Society into the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) following Taiwan’s admission as an observer at the World Health Assembly (WHA).
Ma made the remarks while attending an activity held by the organization in Taichung yesterday to honor volunteers’ contributions to international rescue work.
He acknowledged the challenges the nation was facing in international rescue efforts, mainly as the result of its limited international space.
“Because of matters surrounding our diplomatic relations, we have trouble getting access to many countries when doing international rescue work,” Ma said in his speech.
The Red Cross Society of the Republic of China is not a formal member of the ICRC because the committee considers Taiwan to be a province of China. As a result, the local organization has often been unable to respond and deliver assistance to other countries.
“In light of the example set by the WHA, we are looking at possibilities in how to handle the Red Cross Society and other organizations,” he said, referring to WHO Director-General Margaret Chan’s (陳馮富珍) invitation to Taiwan to attend this year’s WHA under the name “Chinese Taipei.”
Ma attributed Taiwan’s admission to the WHA as an observer to his administration’s efforts to improve cross-strait relations through a “modus vivendi.”
Red Cross Society of the Republic of China president C.V. Chen (陳長文) called on the government to help the organization become an official member of the ICRC so that it can expand its participation in international relief work.
Ma said the government understood the constraints the organization was facing and promised to help it seek full membership within the ICRC through the “WHA model.”
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
RSS