Wikimedia Taiwan yesterday called on China to take responsibility for intellectual property (IP) issues after a Chinese delegation pressed the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to suspend a review of the Wikimedia Foundation’s application for observer status.
The WIPO is a UN specialized agency committed to developing a balanced and effective global IP system.
When its member states on Wednesday examined the foundation’s application for observer status, a Chinese delegate asked the assembly to suspend the discussion, non-governmental organization (NGO) Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) reported.
Photo: Reuters
“As of October 2015 this foundation had 41 recognized chapters and thematic organizations, one of which is Wikimedia Taiwan, established in the province of China,” the KEI quoted the Chinese delegate as saying. “There is reason to believe that this foundation has been carrying out political activities through its member organizations, which could undermine the state’s [China’s] sovereignty and territorial integrity, therefore, it is not fitting for the foundation to serve as an observer to this professional organization.”
The delegate asked the assembly to suspend discussion of Wikimedia Foundation’s application “before the foundation could further clarify such questions as member organizations and Taiwan related positions,” the KEI reported.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday criticized the Chinese delegate.
Photo screen grab from the Taiwan Wild Bird Federation Facebook Page
The delegate is seeking to impose political censorship on the Wikimedia Foundation and override professionalism with politics, the ministry said.
The application was supported by the delegates from the UK and the US, showing that there are still “voices of justice” inside the global organization, ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said in a statement.
Reviewing NGOs’ applications for observer status is irrelevant to the so-called “one China” issue, Ou said, urging the WIPO to adopt a professional approach in examining the foundation’s application.
The WIPO should not become an agent of Chinese expansionism in global organizations or an accomplice in subduing NGOs, otherwise it would fall short of its goals of protecting global IP, she said.
Wikimedia Taiwan issued statements in Chinese and English.
The Wikimedia movement has demonstrated how open licenses encourage users to join hands to create an enormous, astonishing knowledge base, the statement said.
The “fact that our mere existence has become an excuse for a country to hold back a major global affair’s development is astonishingly ridiculous, especially for this to happen in a formal meeting of a UN organization,” it said.
Wikimedia Taiwan “is an independent and autonomous organization that works closely with Wikimedia Foundation,” it said.
However, Wikimedia’s relationship to the Wikimedia foundation is as a partner, not an affiliate, the statement said.
“We, Wikimedia Taiwan, have nothing to do with Wikimedia Foundation’s application to the WIPO,” it added.
“Furthermore, one of the Wikimedia Foundation’s platforms ... Chinese Wikipedia’s content was constantly under the threat of China’s piracy and various means that violat[e] Creative Commons’ public licensing,” it said.
If China wants to become a responsible country on IP issues, it first needs to face the issue directly and propose a solution, and not allow China to become a haven of piracy and play “politics on an international platform, blocking out people’s right to participate in the discussion,” the statement said.
In other developments, a Taiwanese bird monitoring group yesterday announced it has changed its name to the Taiwan Wild Bird Federation, while reiterating that it has never taken a political position.
The group, previously the Chinese Wild Bird Federation, this month became the latest front line in China’s efforts to assert sovereignty over Taiwan.
“We are conservationists, not political actors. In fact, it was BirdLife who asked us to take a political stance by insisting we sign an overtly political declaration and by describing us as a ‘risk,’ without ever clearly defining what that risk was,” it said, adding that it had refused to sign any political documents.
Cambridge-based conservation group BirdLife International cut ties with the federation over concerns that it was promoting Taiwanese independence.
The federation wrote on its Web site yesterday that BirdLife said it was committed to “follow UN positions and protocols on countries and territories” and to treating Taiwan, which it referred to as “Chinese Taiwan,” as part of China.
BirdLife, which said that it was responding to an internal risk review, demanded that the group stop using the name Republic of China (ROC), “and/or any other expression suggesting independence.”
It also asked it to formally commit not to advocate or promote in any way Taiwan’s independence or the legitimacy of the ROC.
BirdLife did not respond to several requests for comment.
Additional reporting by Reuters
FRUIT SPAT: The COA said China had not given evidence for halting wax and custard apple imports, adding that it would spend NT$1bn on promoting sales of the fruit Taipei threatened to take China to the WTO yesterday after Beijing said it would suspend wax apple and custard apple imports from Taiwan due to pest concerns. China’s customs administration earlier yesterday said it had repeatedly found pests called Planococcus minor, a type of mealybug, on wax and custard apples from Taiwan. It asked its Guangdong branch and all affiliated offices to stop clearing the products from today. China had acted unilaterally, without providing scientific evidence, Council of Agriculture (COA) Minister Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲) told a news conference, criticizing the announcement’s timing, as it came during the Mid-Autumn Festival, celebrated in Taiwan
ON ALERT: A woman who tested positive for COVID-19 while abroad last year tested negative twice in Taiwan before showing a positive result on Sunday, the center said The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported two locally transmitted COVID-19 infections, four imported cases and no deaths. The CECC meanwhile warned nearly 500 people to monitor their health after a woman tested postive. The center also reported that a previous local case — a female worker at Taoyuan International Airport Services (桃園航勤), who had the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 — likely contracted the disease from the same source as a previous imported case from Turkey. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that the two local cases were reported in Taipei, and are a
The Lithuanian Ministry of National Defense recommended that consumers avoid buying Chinese mobile phones and advised people to throw away the ones they have now after a government report found the devices had built-in censorship capabilities. Flagship phones sold in Europe by China’s smartphone giant Xiaomi Corp (小米) have a built-in ability to detect and censor terms such as “Free Tibet,” “Long live Taiwan independence” or “democracy movement,” Lithuania’s state-run cybersecurity body said on Tuesday. The capability in Xiaomi’s Mi 10T 5G phone software had been turned off for the “European Union region,” but can be turned on remotely at any time,
CLOSED DOORS? The new US rules, which are to be implemented in November, have sparked concern in Taiwan, given its low fully vaccinated coverage rate The US plans to allow entry to most foreign air travelers as long as they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 — while adding a testing requirement for unvaccinated Americans and barring entry for foreigners who have not received shots. The measures announced on Monday by the White House mark the most sweeping change to US travel policies in months, and widen the gap in rules between vaccinated people — who would see restrictions relaxed — and unvaccinated people. The new rules would replace existing bans on foreigners’ travel to the US from certain regions, including Europe. While the move would open the
RSS