Five former health ministers from across party lines yesterday called on people to sign a petition pushing for Taiwan’s inclusion in the WHO amid global concern about a COVID-19 outbreak in China.
Taiwan attended the World Health Assembly (WHA), the WHO’s decisionmaking body, as an observer from 2009 to 2016, but has been denied entry since then due to pressure from Beijing.
Despite concern about the outbreak, Taiwan was denied entry at WHO emergency meetings for COVID-19, until Tuesday and Wednesday, when Taiwanese delegates were allowed to remotely join a research and development forum.
“Taiwan should be a member state at the WHO, or at least be a WHA observer,” Control Yuan President Chang Po-ya (張博雅) told a news conference in Taipei, adding that the target was 5 million signatures.
Membership in the WHO is a matter of public health and disease prevention, not politics, and it is humankind that suffers if prevention efforts for COVID-19 are not in place, said Chang, who was director of the department of health, the forerunner to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, from 1990 to 1997.
Former department of health directors Twu Shiing-jer (涂醒哲), Yeh Ching-chuan (葉金川) and Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良), and former minister of health and welfare Lin Tzou-yien (林奏延), also endorsed the petition.
As a sovereign nation, Taiwan has a right to a presence at the WHO, and excluding Taiwan not only infringes on the health rights of Taiwanese, but also sacrifices other countries’ rights, as they would miss Taiwan’s contributions, Twu said.
Taiwan has great healthcare and disease prevention systems, and never conceals epidemic situations, Yaung said, adding that although Taiwan and China have close ethnic and cultural connections, their political systems are completely different.
“It is wrong that China has been using politics to interfere with [Taiwan’s] disease prevention efforts,” he said.
Yuang called on Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), who he said is the “biggest Taiwanese independence activist,” to keep a clearer head, as his continuous marginalization of Taiwan and military intimidation would only lead more Taiwanese to lean toward independence.
“I give Taiwan 98 percent for its prevention efforts against the novel coronavirus,” Lin said, adding that unlike the 2003 SARS epidemic no deaths or community infections have occurred so far.
“These achievements rank among the best in the world,” Lin added.
Credit for successful disease prevention goes to the government’s strategies and utilization of technology after it set up an infectious disease prevention network after SARS, tightened disease prevention measures at hospitals, conducted annual on-site simulation drills and established virus labs, Lin said.
Taiwan can contribute to global health by lending its experience to developing countries, Lin said.
The WHO on Tuesday officially named the coronavirus, which originated in Wuhan, China, COVID-19.
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
An SOS message in a bottle has been found in Ireland that is believed to have come from the Taiwanese captain of fishing vessel Yong Yu Sing No. 18 (永裕興18號), who has been missing without a trace for over four years, along with nine Indonesian crew members. The vessel, registered to Suao (蘇澳), went missing near Hawaii on Dec. 30, 2020. The ship has since been recovered, but the 10 crew members have never been found. The captain, surnamed Lee (李), is believed to have signed the note with his name. A post appeared on Reddit on Tuesday after a man
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
RSS