Two senior members of the US House of Representatives on Monday called for continued support of Taiwan as it became clear that the nation would not be invited to the World Health Assembly (WHA) due to China’s obstruction.
The deadline to register for the event, which opens on May 22 in Geneva, Switzerland, passed on Monday, and Taiwan did not receive an invitation.
Representatives Ed Royce and Eliot Engel, the chairman and ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, made the call in a letter to US Secretary of Health and Human Services Thomas Price.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
They urged Price to meet with the delegation that Taiwan is to send to Geneva regardless of whether it can participate in the WHA proceedings and to encourage WHO members to maintain their support for Taiwan’s continued participation in the WHA, the decisionmaking body of the WHO.
They also encouraged Price to visit Taiwan later this year, which they said “would signal strong support for Taiwan’s global health efforts around the world.”
“The global health community does not benefit when Taiwan is kept in the dark on these critical matters. We are all safer when Taiwan has meaningful and unobstructed participation in international health cooperation forums,” they said in the letter.
“In addition to the benefits accrued by the international community from Taiwan’s participation, we should all agree that the health and safety of the people of Taiwan should not be needlessly held hostage by politics,” they said.
Also on Monday, the US Department of State reiterated Washington’s support for Taiwan to expand its contributions to the world community and urged Taipei and Beijing to engage in dialogue.
“The United States remains committed to supporting Taiwan as it seeks to expand its already significant contributions to addressing global challenges,” Bureau for East Asian and Pacific Affairs spokesperson Grace Choi said.
“We encourage authorities in Beijing and Taipei to engage in constructive dialogue on the basis of dignity and respect,” she said in response to questions. “We continue to urge patience, flexibility and creativity on both sides.”
“We support Taiwan’s membership in international organizations that do not require statehood,” Choi said in line with a long-standing US position on Taiwan’s bid to participate in international affairs. “In organizations that require statehood for membership, the United States supports Taiwan’s meaningful participation.”
Choi made the comments after China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Minister Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) on Monday said that the basis for Taiwan’s continued participation in the WHA was gone, as Taipei has refused to comply with Beijing’s demand that it accept the so-called “1992 consensus.”
The “1992 consensus” — a term former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) admitted making up in 2000 — refers to a tacit understanding between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese government that both sides acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS