Fifteen of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies have voiced support for its attendance at this year’s World Health Assembly (WHA) as an observer, the WHO said yesterday as it opened the first meeting of the 71st WHA in Geneva, Switzerland.
Proposals for a supplementary agenda item “inviting Taiwan to participate in the WHA as an observer” were received last month and earlier this month from Belize, Tuvalu, Nauru, Eswatini, the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, El Salvador, Saint Christopher and Nevis, Nicaragua, Paraguay, the Solomon Islands, Burkina Faso, Haiti, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Saint Lucia, the WHO said in a statement.
The proposal has been submitted to the WHA’s General Committee for review, it said.
Photo: AFP
If the assembly decides to discuss the proposal, it would issue documents related to it, the statement said.
The proposals are listed in the form of direct quotes and do not represent the opinions of the WHO Secretariat, a note to the statement said, adding that the WHO addresses Taiwan as “Taiwan, China.”
Representatives from Germany, Honduras and Japan yesterday voiced support for Taiwan to have observer status during their speeches to the assembly as well as, for the first time ever, Canada and New Zealand.
Photo: AFP
Taipei Cultural and Economic Delegation Geneva Office Director-General Bob Chen (陳龍錦) said proposals would be discussed in two-against-two debates, and that four of Taiwan’s allies have agreed to speak for it.
While Eswatini and the Solomon Islands would lobby at the General Committee for Taiwan’s participation, the Marshall Islands and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines would put forward a motion to debate Taiwan’s participation if the committee vetoes the proposal, Chen said.
Taiwan in 1997 began to seek an invitation to the WHA’s annual meetings and was finally invited as an observer in 2009, under the former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration. It received invitations through 2016.
Photo: CNA, screen grab from the Internet
However, Beijing blocked such invites last year and again this year to show its displeasure with the Democratic Progressive Party administration of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).
Three cases of Candida auris, a fungus that can cause a yeast infection known as candidiasis in humans, have been reported in Taiwan over the past few years, but they did not display drug resistance, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said yesterday. Lo made the statement at a news conference in Taipei, one day after the Washington Post reported that the potentially deadly fungus is spreading in US hospitals. The fungus was first discovered in Japan in 2009 and poses a danger to immunocompromised people, with an estimated mortality rate of 30 to 60 percent, Lo
‘DIRE’: Taiwan would not engage in ‘dollar diplomacy,’ the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, after China reportedly offered Honduras up to US$3 billion to establish relations The government yesterday recalled its ambassador to Honduras after the Central American nation sent its foreign minister to China, signaling that it would sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Suspicions concerning ties with Honduras are rife after Honduran President Xiomara Castro on Tuesday last week wrote on Twitter that her country would pursue diplomatic ties with China. Honduran Minister of Foreign Affairs Eduardo Enrique Reina traveled to China on Wednesday “to promote efforts for the establishment of diplomatic relations” on instructions from Castro, Reuters yesterday quoted Honduran presidential spokesman Ivis Alvarado as saying. The government “has decided to immediately recall the ambassador to Honduras
SWITCH TO BEIJING: The government severed diplomatic relations about an hour after Honduras announced the move, saying that no semi-official ties would be maintained Taiwan severed diplomatic ties with Honduras and ended all cooperation with the Central American country, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, about an hour and a half after the Honduran Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Twitter at 8am Taiwan time that the nation would cut its ties with Taiwan. Honduran President Xiomara Castro on Wednesday sent Honduran Minister of Foreign Affairs Eduardo Enrique Reina to Beijing to negotiate the establishment of diplomatic relations. She announced the plan on March 14 on Twitter. “To safeguard Taiwan’s sovereignty and dignity, Taiwan is terminating diplomatic ties with Honduras with immediate effect” after communication with
MEDIA, SOCIETY FOCUS: Doublethink Lab said that Beijing is trying to coerce countries that rely on China economically to pursue policies in its favor China has stronger influence over Taiwan’s media and society than any other country, the Taipei-based Doublethink Lab think tank said yesterday, as it announced its China Index gauging Beijing’s global influence. Taiwan ranked 11th overall among 82 countries assessed, but first in terms of social and media influence, Doublethink Lab chairman Puma Shen (沈伯洋) told a news conference in Taipei. More than 200 experts and academics participated in the project, including some highly influential figures, Shen said. The index collects information from countries worldwide to gauge China’s influence and assess how Chinese policies affect them, Shen said. In terms of Chinese