A non-governmental organization (NGO) yesterday questioned the government’s determination to expand the nation’s international participation after two regional medical associations’ plan to set up a joint headquarters in Taiwan ran aground due to the government’s failure to provide funding.
Taiwan Root Medical Peace Corps (TRMPC) president Liu Chi-chun (劉啟群) made the remarks at a forum held by the non-profit Association of Foreign Relations in Taipei to discuss NGOs’ role in supporting the government’s effort to increase Taiwan’s international participation.
His criticism came at a time when the government is sparing no efforts to obtain an invitation to this year’s World Health Assembly, which is to take place from May 21 to May 26 in Geneva, Switzerland.
After the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration unveiled its New Southbound Policy, then-policy office director James Huang (黃志芳) had approached him to sound out the possibility of attracting international organizations to Taiwan, Liu said.
“I gave him the idea of encouraging the Association of Medical Doctors of Asia [AMDA] and the Federation of Asian Pharmaceutical Associations to form an alliance and set up a headquarters in Taiwan,” Liu said.
The AMDA had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs a few years earlier and the pharmaceutical association was headed by a colleague of Liu’s when he attended Taipei Medical University, he said.
The Japan-based AMDA, founded in 1984, has more than 30 member states, while the Philippine-based federation has attracted more than 20 member states since its establishment in 1964, Liu said, adding that the two groups had agreed to his proposal.
Liu said he first talked to then-National Security Council deputy secretary-general Tseng Hou-jen (曾厚仁) about the plan, but Tseng referred him to Taichung Mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) after failing to secure funding from the central government for the establishment of the proposed headquarters.
After receiving no positive response from Lin, Liu said he then discussed the issue with a few aides of Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) after hearing that the mayor was interested in hosting the headquarters.
“However, again, we did not hear back [from Cheng’s office] after our talks,” Liu added.
Lamenting his failed attempt, Liu said Taiwan has never been home to an international organization that boasts more than 30 member states and that it was a pity that the government let such a rare opportunity slip because of budget issues.
“I wonder if the government is merely paying lip service [to expanding the nation’s international participation],” Liu said.
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