Despite impassioned pleas from several countries, the World Health Assembly (WHA), the highest decisionmaking body of the WHO, yesterday refused to discuss admitting Taiwan to the meeting, under pressure from China.
Taiwan has been invited to attend the WHO’s main annual meeting as an observer every year since 2009, but this year it did not receive an invitation.
Representatives from 11 of WHO’s 194 member countries, including Nicaragua, Paraguay and Belize, put forth a proposal yesterday — the first day of the assembly — offering Taiwan permanent observer status onto the agenda.
However, the assembly decided without a vote to reject the proposal, leaving the issue off the agenda. Pro-Taiwan protesters were demonstrating in front of the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, as the gathering was under way.
Vincentian Minister of Health Robert Browne, whose nation among the countries behind the proposal, warned that “the exclusion of Taiwan erodes the credibility, integrity and effectiveness of this important assembly.”
His counterpart from Palau, Emais Roberts, agreed, asking the assembly how he could be permitted to represent 17,000 Palauans at the meeting “while we ignore the 23 million people in Taiwan.”
However, China hailed the decision to leave Taiwanese observer status off the agenda, insisting that it was Beijing’s decision alone.
“Taiwan is part of China. Questions regarding Taiwan are China’s internal affairs,” the Chinese representative at the meeting said.
Today “the political foundation for Taiwan, China, to participate in the assembly this year is not there anymore,” the Chinese representative said.
He rejected the notion put forth by the 11 countries that blocking Taiwan could hamper international cooperation and the rapid exchange of information on health matters.
The proposal’s real agenda, he said, was to help Taiwanese “authorities to manipulate health issues in an attempt to expand their so-called international space and challenge the ‘one china’ principle.”
In an interview on Sunday, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) voiced deep disappointment at Taiwan’s exclusion from the 70th WHA and urged international pressure on China to ensure it has access in future.
Taiwanese media have also been refused access to cover the event.
However, Chen said he had traveled to Geneva anyway to meet health ministers and diplomats from more than 30 countries on the sidelines of the WHA meeting.
“We want every assistance to keep up the international pressure so that this condition will not happen again,” Chen said.
Chen said there were no plans to meet with Chinese officials during his trip to Geneva, but said that “for the health of both sides we are willing to work together if we have the chance.”
He said that leaving Taiwan out in the cold could be detrimental to global health, with international cooperation and rapid exchange of information seen as vital to halting disease outbreaks.
“We feel sorry that the welfare of human health is unnecessarily polluted by China,” he said.
Chen on Sunday held talks with US Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price, in Geneva, with the US side reaffirming its support for Taiwan to take part in the WHA.
The talks, which Chen described as “pleasant and successful,” lasted 45 minutes and Chen said he has invited Price to visit Taiwan, to which the US official said he would take the invitation into careful consideration.
‘NO SECURITY RISK’: The Railway Bureau reassured the public that the technicians’ activities were limited to technical guidance and did not involve sensitive systems The Railway Bureau yesterday said it had invited eight Chinese technicians to assist with an airport MRT construction project. The bureau issued the confirmation after an Internet user said Chinese nationals had entered the construction zone of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 project. They asked why “individuals from an enemy state” were allowed access to such a major national infrastructure project, which raised serious concerns over Taiwan’s industrial safety, sensitive systems and information security. The bureau’s Northern Region Engineering Branch Office said subcontractor Taiwan Handle Industrial Co (台灣手把工業) of the Taoyuan airport MRT’s “Contract No. CU05 Project A14 Station Civil, MEP &
The National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology yesterday showcased its locally developed variants of the Vision 60 robotic patrol dog, which it plans to deploy on the nation’s outlying territories in the South China Sea. The variants were produced under the Joint Lab project — created by the institute and domestic companies — and assembled with domestically produced motors, lenses and artificial intelligence (AI) systems alongside licensed tech from the US, Missile and Rocket Systems Research Division deputy director Jen Kuo-kang (任國光) told the media event at a military base in Taipei’s Dazhi (大直) area. Taiwan has built up its strengths
NOT IMMEDIATE: Taiwan has a chance to appeal the proposed 10 percent tariff before it starts, while other countries face a 12.5 percent tariff from the trade office Taiwan is among 60 economies determined by the US to have failed to impose or enforce a ban on the importation of goods produced with forced labor, according to a notice released on Tuesday by the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), which proposed imposing an additional 10 percent or more tariff on them. The USTR in a statement said that following an investigation, it had determined under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 that the failure of the 60 economies to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor is
TIT-FOR-TAT: The US allegedly revoked the visa of a Chinese national working at Xinhua News Agency in the US in response to Beijing’s expulsion of Vivian Wang The Presidential Office yesterday condemned China for expelling a New York Times correspondent from Beijing following the newspaper’s interview with President William Lai (賴清德), saying the move highlighted Beijing’s suppression of press freedom and its threat to international news media. Taiwan has noted a series of recent incidents in which Beijing used similar tactics to “threaten and pressure international media outlets and journalists,” Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said in a statement. “This concerns not only press freedom and freedom of expression, but also the safety of journalists, and Taiwan and relevant partners are paying close attention to the situation,” she
RSS