Taipei yesterday blasted China for endangering the health of Taiwanese and compromising global epidemic prevention by blocking it from the WHO, as it hopes to attend a major meeting next month.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday accused China of having a “secret arrangement” with the WHO, granting Beijing power to veto its attendance even at smaller technical briefings.
Out of the 154 WHO briefings that Taiwan applied for from 2009 to last year, only 46 were approved, the ministry said in a statement.
It also said China had delayed timely notification of health information to Taiwan.
“The unilateral arrangement between China and the WHO not only poses a threat to the health of the Taiwanese people, but it also causes a loophole in global epidemic prevention,” it said.
The comments came in response to a statement on Wednesday from China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO), which said that Taiwanese experts were free to attend WHO conferences aside from the World Health Assembly (WHA) and were still receiving timely information on disease prevention.
The ministry said the TAO statement was “untrue.”
Despite intensified lobbying efforts this year, the ministry earlier this week said it was not optimistic that it would receive an invitation to the WHA meeting scheduled for May 21 to May 26.
“The WHO faces a lot of pressure and we are all very clear where that pressure comes from,” Department of International Organizations Director-General Michael Hsu (徐佩勇) said.
A number of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies have written to the WHO urging the nation’s admittance, while US senators this month called on the US secretary of state to develop a strategy to help Taiwan regain “observer” status.
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
WEATHER Typhoon forming: CWA A tropical depression is expected to form into a typhoon as early as today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, adding that the storm’s path remains uncertain. Before the weekend, it would move toward the Philippines, the agency said. Some time around Monday next week, it might reach a turning point, either veering north toward waters east of Taiwan or continuing westward across the Philippines, the CWA said. Meanwhile, the eye of Typhoon Kalmaegi was 1,310km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, as of 2am yesterday, it said. The storm is forecast to move through central
RSS