Minister of Health and Welfare Lin Tzou-yien (林奏延) yesterday said he “would likely” mention “Taiwan” if he represents the nation at the World Health Assembly (WHA) next year.
Lin made the remarks at a meeting of the legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee in response to a question from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安).
Lin has been criticized for not mentioning “Taiwan” in his five-minute speech on Wednesday at the WHA in Geneva, Switzerland.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
KMT legislators questioned why Lin did not mention “Taiwan” in his WHA speech, to which he said that the speech was drafted by him and modified by delegates who attended the meeting, with the National Security Council (NSC) being informed of the content.
In response to Chiang’s question about whether he would mention “Taiwan” in his next speech at the WHA, Lin said he is not sure he will be able to attend the conference, but he “would likely” mention Taiwan if he does.
New Party Power (NPP) Legislator Hung Tzu-yung (洪慈庸) said that it was a pity that Lin did not mention “Taiwan” this year, but if the issue had caused the KMT to respect “Taiwan” along with the DPP and the NPP, then she lauds Lin for his contribution.
The meeting began with KMT Legislator Alicia Wang (王育敏) lashing out at the NSC for not sending representatives to the meeting.
Wang said NSC officials should report to the committee because one of the issues to be addressed is the content of Lin’s speech at the WHA and lawmakers want to clarify whether the council approved of its content.
NSC officials being absent without permission is an act of “serious disrespect for the committee and the Legislative Yuan,” she said.
A few KMT legislators raised procedural motions to support Wang’s opinion and also criticized Lin for not mentioning “Taiwan” in his WHA speech.
KMT Legislator Arthur Chen (陳宜民) criticized Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials for refusing to help him deliver a protest letter to the WHO during the meetings in Geneva, but Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬) said Lin Tzou-yien had already handed the government’s protest letter and it would seem like “our nation is split or in a civil war” if they handed another letter from the KMT.
“The NSC must tell whether it has agreed to the exchange of interests [with the WHA or other nations] so that it can downgrade our sovereignty,” Chiang said.
DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) and DPP Legislator Wu Yu-chin (吳玉琴) said that according to the constitutional system and convention, the “NSC does not report or answer questions at the Legislative Yuan unless the meeting is directly about legislation proposals or operation budgets regarding the council.”
Several DPP legislators said the NSC had on Friday sent a document saying that it could not send officials to the meeting, but Wang reiterated her disapproval and asked the contact person to inform the council to send officials at once.
The argument continued for about 90 minutes until the committee received confirmation that the NSC would not send officials to the meeting.
A vote was held on whether to condemn the NSC for not reporting to the legislature, with the majority voting against the motion.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
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,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods