The attachment of UN Resolution No. 2758 on Taiwan’s invitation to the World Health Assembly (WHA) is WHO Director-General Margaret Chan’s (陳馮富珍) attempt to turn the organization into “China’s WHO,” Foundation of Medical Professionals Alliance in Taiwan executive director Lin Shih-chia (林世嘉) said yesterday.
The WHO on Friday issued Taiwan an invitation to attend a May 23 meeting in Geneva. Unlike previous WHA invitations, it mentioned UN Resolution No. 2758, which was passed on Oct. 25, 1971, recognizing the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as “the only legitimate representative of China to the UN” and expelling representatives from the Republic of China (ROC).
Chan’s attempt leads to the to loss of the WHO’s neutrality, something that would not be permitted by other nations, Lin said.
Meanwhile, Taiwan Medical Professionals Alliance chairman Wu Shuh-min (吳樹民) yesterday said it would be better for the incoming Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government not to participate in the WHA rather than attend under the “one China” principle.
By choosing not to attend this year’s WHA, Taiwan can protest the WHO as well, Wu said.
Adding that it is “very odd” for the WHO to cite the “one China” principle on its invitation to Taiwan, Wu said the WHO, being an international organization, ought to be in service to all nations rather than submit to China’s control.
“Maybe future health minister Lin Tzou-yien (林奏延) could clarify the position of ‘one China, one Taiwan’ during his attendance of the WHA meeting,” Wu said.
If he cannot clarify the position, then the DPP government should not attend the meeting, Wu added.
Greenpeace yesterday said that it is to appeal a decision last month by the Taipei High Administrative Court to dismiss its 2021 lawsuit against the Ministry of Economic Affairs over “loose” regulations governing major corporate electricity consumers. The climate-related lawsuit — the first of its kind in Taiwan — sought to require the government to enforce higher green energy thresholds on major corporations to reduce emissions in light of climate change and an uptick in extreme weather. The suit, filed by Greenpeace East Asia, the Environmental Jurists Association and four individual plaintiffs, was dismissed on May 8 following four years of litigation. The
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