US support for Taiwan to participate in next year’s World Health Assembly (WHA) meeting as an observer must be met with supporting action by the Taiwanese government, former Ministry of Health and Welfare representative to Geneva Chang Wu-hsiu (張武修) said.
Chang’s comments referred to the support of other subcommittee members regarding a bill introduced by US Representative Ted Yoho, who chairs the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific. The bill was unanimously passed on Thursday.
The bill aims to improve the US strategy for promoting Taiwan’s participation in the WHO, and instructs the US secretary of state to report on the US Department of State’s efforts to obtain observer status for Taiwan at the WHA.
PHOTO: Bloomberg
Yoho said international health concerns should not be limited to national borders, and it was unfortunate that China has taken a shortsighted view and barred Taiwan from participating in international organizations.
Public health should not become an issue of political football and the US should continue to support Taiwan’s participation in the WHO, US Representative Gerald Connolly added.
Chang said that alternative methods of medical and health cooperation between Taiwan and the US should be explored.
“There are too many things that could be done,” Chang said. “Opportunity must be backed up with action.”
With Taiwan’s high standard of medical quality and wide healthcare coverage, it could cooperate with the US and other countries to make the nation more visible on the international stage, but such a commitment does not have to be centered around politics, Chang said.
Taiwan could offer medical training to other nations, develop a market for medical products, or even invest in hospitals abroad, expanding Taiwan’s renown and capability through actual work, he added.
The government and private sectors must ensure that Taiwan is invited to the next WHA, Taipei-based Foundation of Medical Professionals Alliance executive director Lin Shih-chia (林世嘉) said.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs thanked the subcommittee for its support, saying that such action was in line with constant support from the US administrative and legal branches supporting the nation’s participation in international organizations.
Support for the bill shows that support for Taiwan’s participation in international organizations transcends major political parties, the ministry said, adding that it would follow developments of the bill and lobby for support and aid from all bodies.
Taiwan had hoped to attend this year’s WHA in Geneva, Switzerland, from May 22 to May 31 as an observer, as it had done for the past eight years, but it did not receive an invitation because of opposition from China.
Taiwan first attended the WHA as an observer in 2009, a year after former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) came to power and began pursuing a more conciliatory policy toward Beijing.
Taiwan’s exclusion was widely seen as part of China’s efforts to clamp down on Taiwan’s international participation, a strategy that has become more aggressive since President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) came to power last year.
Additional reporting by CNA
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