President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday called on the UN and other international organizations to recognize Taiwanese’s right to health.
Tsai made the remarks at the Presidential Office during a meeting with European Chamber of Commerce Taiwan chairman Giuseppe Izzo.
Taiwan is being left out of worldwide disease prevention efforts directed by the WHO and the International Civil Aviation Organization for political reasons.
Photo: CNA
Disease prevention is a global affair and Taiwan should not be left out of disease prevention efforts, especially at this crucial moment when it is on the front line of a dangerous epidemic, Tsai said.
She thanked the EU for standing up on behalf of Taiwan in its bid to participate in the WHO, and said the nation is ready and eager to make contributions to international society.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative caucus yesterday issued a statement calling on China to support Taiwan’s participation in the WHO and the World Health Assembly (WHA), the WHO’s decisionmaking body.
Several countries supporting Taiwan’s participation in the two bodies means that there is a general understanding that it would be impossible to minimize the risk posed by the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak without a concerted international effort, the statement said.
Taiwan is not the center of the world, but global prevention efforts cannot do without its cooperation, it said.
If China really cares “more than anyone” about the health of Taiwanese as it has said, it should let go of considerations unrelated to outbreak prevention and support Taiwan’s participation in the WHO and the WHA, the statement said.
Important data and information possessed by Taiwan have been rejected by the WHO and WHA, leading to a hole in the emergency objective of facing and solving the problem together, potentially allowing the situation to get out of control, it said, adding that China would be to blame.
While protecting the health and well-being of humans is a universal value, and all countries work toward strengthening people’s healthcare rights, there would be a major gap in the emergency situation due to China’s “selfish considerations,” the lawmakers said.
The caucus strongly condemns China’s abuse of political factors and ideology to suppress Taiwan’s opportunity to participate in the WHO and the WHA, it said, calling the move “heartless.”
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
US President Donald Trump said "it’s up to" Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be "very unhappy" with a change in the "status quo," the New York Times said in an interview published yesterday. Xi "considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing," Trump told the newspaper on Wednesday. "But I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that," he added. "I hope he doesn’t do that." Trump made the comments in
Tourism in Kenting fell to a historic low for the second consecutive year last year, impacting hotels and other local businesses that rely on a steady stream of domestic tourists, the latest data showed. A total of 2.139 million tourists visited Kenting last year, down slightly from 2.14 million in 2024, the data showed. The number of tourists who visited the national park on the Hengchun Peninsula peaked in 2015 at 8.37 million people. That number has been below 2.2 million for two years, although there was a spike in October last year due to multiple long weekends. The occupancy rate for hotels
A cold surge advisory was today issued for 18 cities and counties across Taiwan, with temperatures of below 10°C forecast during the day and into tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. New Taipei City, Taipei, Taoyuan and Hsinchu, Miaoli and Yilan counties are expected to experience sustained temperatures of 10°C or lower, the CWA said. Temperatures are likely to temporarily drop below 10°C in most other areas, except Taitung, Pingtung, Penghu and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, CWA data showed. The cold weather is being caused by a strong continental cold air mass, combined with radiative cooling, a process in which heat escapes from
RSS