Taiwan is not under China’s political control, the Presidential Office said yesterday in response to China’s blocking of Taiwan from attending this year’s World Heath Assembly (WHA) in Geneva, Switzerland.
“Taiwan is not a province that is governed by the People’s Republic of China [PRC]. The Republic of China [ROC] is a sovereign nation,” the statement said.
The ROC government does not recognize or accept the actions of the government of the PRC, the statement added.
Photo: Chung Li-hua, Taipei Times
Chinese National Health and Family Planning Commission Chairperson Li Bin (李斌) has all but closed the door on Taiwan’s participation at the WHO’s annual assembly until Taiwan accepts Beijing’s “one China” principle.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Li said that China had previously “agreed to let the Taiwan region attend” WHA meetings under a “special arrangement” based on acceptance of the “one China” principle, adding that the refusal of President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to accept the principle “has destroyed the goodwill basis for the continuous attendance of the Taiwan region at the assembly.”
“It is the DPP itself which has set the barrier that has impeded the participation of the Taiwan region at the WHA,” Li said. “Only when the political basis that reflects the ‘one China’ principle has been confirmed can regular exchanges across the [Taiwan] Strait be sustained.”
Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang (黃重諺) said China’s use of political reasoning to force the exclusion of Taiwan from international organizations would cause it to lose the support of the international community.
“The prevention of epidemics should have nothing to do with the borders of nations; the WHO belongs to the world,” Huang said.
Taiwanese are members of the global community and have the same rights to health as people elsewhere, he said, adding that Taiwan is committed to continuing working with the international community on health-related issues.
The Mainland Affairs Council yesterday said the government has never adhered to Beijing’s “one China” principle.
The council strongly criticized China’s “confusion of the international community and attempt to conceal the facts.”
Taiwan’s years of contributions to world health have been achieved through the hard work of the public and the government, and has nothing to do with the “one China” principle, it said.
“China will not achieve its political aims by pressuring Taiwan. Doing so will only cause the two nations to drift farther apart,” the council said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said China’s insistence on adherence to the “one China” principle is unilateral and not in accordance with the facts.
The DPP said in a statement that as a sovereign nation, Taiwan’s right to join the WHO should not be unilaterally decided by Beijing.
Additional reporting by Chiu Yan-ling and AP
COMMITMENT: The world’s biggest contract chipmaker said that its new 2nm chips, as well as next-generation, cutting-edge 1.4nm chips, will be produced in Taiwan Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that the majority of its most advanced chips would continue to be manufactured in Taiwan and that it is boosting advanced chip packaging capacity to catch up with fast-growing demand driven by generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications like ChatGPT. Deeply rooted in Taiwan, TSMC is expanding production capacity for its most advanced 3-nanometer (nm) chips at its Tainan fab and is building new plants to produce new 2-nanometer chips in Hsinchu and Taichung in 2025. The chipmaker also plans to produce next-generation, cutting-edge 1.4-nanometer chips, which are currently under development, at home, it
Former US president Donald Trump has been indicted on charges of mishandling classified documents at his Florida estate, a remarkable development that makes him the first former US president to face criminal charges by the federal government that he once oversaw. The US Department of Justice was expected to make public a seven-count indictment ahead of a historic court appearance next week amid a presidential campaign punctuated by criminal prosecutions in multiple states. The indictment carries unmistakably grave legal consequences, including the possibility of prison if Trump is convicted. It also has enormous political implications, potentially upending a Republican presidential primary that Trump
PASSAGE DISPUTE: A US and Canadian transit was a provocation and an attempt to ‘exercise hegemony of navigation,’ China’s defense ministry told a forum in Singapore The Ministry of National Defense yesterday urged the Chinese Communist Party to avoid provocative behavior after a Chinese navy ship crossed the paths of a US destroyer and Canadian frigate transiting the Taiwan Strait. A Chinese ship on Saturday “executed maneuvers in an unsafe manner in the vicinity of [the USS] Chung-Hoon,” an American destroyer, the US Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement. The vessel “overtook Chung-Hoon on their port side and crossed their bow at 150 yards [137m]. Chung-Hoon maintained course and slowed to 10 [knots, 18.5kph] to avoid a collision,” the statement said. It then “crossed Chung-Hoon’s bow a second time
HARD-WON FREEDOM: Beijing’s 1989 crackdown on protesters has not been and should not be forgotten, as China tightens its grip on Hong Kong, Lai said Taiwanese enjoy democracy and freedom and have multiple ways to express their creativity, and hopefully young people in China would also one day have the freedom to sing and express themselves, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday, commemorating the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Yesterday was the 34th anniversary of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s bloody crackdown on student-led protests in Beijing in 1989, also known as the June Fourth Incident. Tsai posted a photograph taken in March in a subway station in Guizhou, China, where hundreds of young people gathered to sing People With No Ideals Don’t Get Hurt (沒有理想的人不傷心), saying that they