Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) officials yesterday reiterated that they were optimistic that Taiwan would receive an invitation to attend the World Health Assembly (WHA) this year, although they said there was a backup plan in case an invitation was not forthcoming.
On the sidelines of a morning meeting of the legislature’s Health and Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruce Linghu (令狐榮達) said that many of Taiwan’s allies, including the US, are helping secure an invitation to the WHA, which is scheduled to be held from May 23 to May 28 in Geneva, Switzerland.
“In the meantime, we have maintained close contact with the WHO secretary-general. I think there is still a great possibility that we would receive an invitation and be able to attend this year’s session,” Linghu said.
Linghu declined to reveal details of the measures the government would take should it not receive an invitation, saying that the foreign ministry and the Ministry of Health and Welfare are engaged in the relevant preparations.
However, when answering questions from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) during the committee meeting, Minister of Health and Welfare Chiang Been-huang (蔣丙煌) said the government has not ruled out sending representatives to sit in the public gallery if it does not receive an invitation, as was done in 2009.
Taiwan first participated in the WHA in 2009 as an observer under the name “Chinese Taipei,” an arrangement subject to annual renewal with Beijing’s consent.
It has attended every assembly since then, but there is concern that Beijing might try to block an invite this year to send a message to the new government that takes office on May 20.
Foreign ministry officials were also quizzed on the issue during a meeting of the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee by New Power Party Legislator Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明).
“The foreign ministry seems to think that there is still a good chance that we will receive an invitation and will attend this year’s WHA session. It that really so?” Hsu asked Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Javier Hou (侯清山).
“There is still a chance,” Hou said, adding that to his understanding, the health ministry already has a backup plan.
Hou also said that the EU was helping Taiwan in its bid for an invitation.
Department of International Organizations Director-General Michael Hsu (徐佩勇) said that not all observers receive an invitation at the same time and that the foreign ministry has sought through other countries to understand the WHO’s operational processes regarding the assembly.
Pressed by Hsu Yung-ming on the likelihood of Taiwan attending the WHA if an invitation fails to arrive before the deadline for registering for the forum on Monday next week, Michael Hsu said there was a backup plan, but declined to discuss details.
The foreign ministry issued a statement later in the day saying that its representative office in Geneva has conveyed to the WHO the government’s plan to follow precedent and send a delegation to attend the WHA in a “professional and pragmatic” manner.
“The office also urged the WHO to send out an invitation at the earliest date possible, to which the UN agency said it is still in the process of preparing an invitation for us,” the foreign ministry said.
Additional reporting by staff writer
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
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
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater