US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday urged WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to invite Taiwan to this month’s World Health Assembly (WHA) as an observer, prompting the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to thank the US for its steadfast support.
During a news briefing at the White House, Pompeo called on all nations to support Taiwan’s bid to join the annual assembly, which is expected to begin on May 18.
“Today I want to call upon all nations, including those in Europe, to support Taiwan’s participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly and in other relevant United Nations venues. I also call upon WHO Director-General Tedros to invite Taiwan to observe this month’s WHA, as he has the power to do, and as his predecessors have done on multiple occasions,” Pompeo said.
Photo: Reuters
Taiwan participated in the WHA as an observer from 2009 to 2016, but has not been invited since President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) took office on May 20, 2016.
Pompeo made the remarks after he accused Beijing of covering up the outbreak in Wuhan, China, causing brave Chinese who raised the alarm to disappear and of deploying its propaganda machine to denounce those calling for transparency.
“China is still refusing to share the information we need to keep people safe, such as viral isolates, clinical specimens and details about the many COVID-19 patients in December 2019, not to mention ‘patient zero,’” he said.
Many countries are beginning to understand the risks of doing business with the Chinese Community Party and taking action to protect their people, he said, describing the trend as a “newfound realism.”
The ministry yesterday thanked Pompeo for supporting Taiwan’s bid to join global organizations.
The US Department of State also launched a “TweetforTaiwan” campaign last week to rally support for Taiwan’s bid, ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) told a news briefing in Taipei.
The ongoing threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic shows that the global disease prevention system must leave no one behind, she said.
The ministry would continue to work with the US and other like-minded partners to defend the health and security of Taiwanese and Americans, as well as other people around the globe, she added.
Five of Taiwan’s 15 diplomatic allies — Eswatini, the Marshall Islands, Nicaragua, Palau and Saint Lucia — as of Wednesday had submitted proposals to the WHO, urging it to invite Taiwan to the assembly, and more are expected to voice support, she added.
Ou also condemned Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying (華春瑩) for seeking to mislead the global community, after Hua on Wednesday claimed that Beijing has properly arranged for Taiwan to participate in global health events.
Regarding WHO legal counsel Derek Walton’s reference to “Taiwan, China” during a news briefing on Wednesday, Ou reiterated that it is a fact that Taiwan does not belong to the People’s Republic of China.
As the world’s most important health organization, the WHO should not succumb to irrational pressure from China and, in forsaking its neutrality, downgrade Taiwan, she added.
TPP RALLY: The clashes occurred near the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall on Saturday at a rally to mark the anniversary of a raid on former TPP chairman Ko Wen-je People who clashed with police at a Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) rally in Taipei on Saturday would be referred to prosecutors for investigation, said the Ministry of the Interior, which oversees the National Police Agency. Taipei police had collected evidence of obstruction of public officials and coercion by “disorderly” demonstrators, as well as contraventions of the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法), the ministry said in a statement on Sunday. It added that amid the “severe pushing and jostling” by some demonstrators, eight police officers were injured, including one who was sent to hospital after losing consciousness, allegedly due to heat stroke. The Taipei
NO LIVERPOOL TRIP: Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who won a gold medal in the boxing at the Paris Olympics, was embroiled in controversy about her gender at that event Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) will not attend this year’s World Boxing Championships in Liverpool, England, due to a lack of response regarding her sex tests from the organizer, World Boxing. The national boxing association on Monday said that it had submitted all required tests to World Boxing, but had not received a response as of Monday, the departure day for the championships. It said the decision for Lin to skip the championships was made to protect its athletes, ensuring they would not travel to the UK without a guarantee of participation. Lin, who won a gold medal in the women’s 57kg boxing
‘NOT ALONE’: A Taiwan Strait war would disrupt global trade routes, and could spark a worldwide crisis, so a powerful US presence is needed as a deterrence, a US senator said US Senator Deb Fischer on Thursday urged her colleagues in the US Congress to deepen Washington’s cooperation with Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific partners to contain the global security threat from China. Fischer and other lawmakers recently returned from an official trip to the Indo-Pacific region, where they toured US military bases in Hawaii and Guam, and visited leaders, including President William Lai (賴清德). The trip underscored the reality that the world is undergoing turmoil, and maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region is crucial to the security interests of the US and its partners, she said. Her visit to Taiwan demonstrated ways the
The US has revoked Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) authorization to freely ship essential gear to its main Chinese chipmaking base, potentially curtailing its production capabilities at that older-generation facility. American officials recently informed TSMC of their decision to end the Taiwanese chipmaker’s so-called validated end user (VEU) status for its Nanjing site. The action mirrors steps the US took to revoke VEU designations for China facilities owned by Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc. The waivers are set to expire in about four months. “TSMC has received notification from the US Government that our VEU authorization for TSMC Nanjing
RSS