French senators have sponsored a bill that seeks to impress upon the French government the benefits of supporting the inclusion of Taiwan in international bodies.
The sponsors included French senators Joel Guerriau and Alain Richard, both of whom serve on the France-Taiwan Inter-Parliamentary Amity Association.
Richard, who led delegations to Taiwan in 2015 and 2018, earlier this month was pressured by Chinese Ambassador to France Lu Shaye (盧沙野) to cancel a proposed trip to Taiwan, after Lu sent Richard a letter saying that the trip would “affect the ‘status quo’ between Taipei and Beijing.”
Photo: AFP
The bill, if passed, would lead to increased French support for Taiwan’s inclusion in international bodies such as the WHO, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the International Criminal Police Organization.
The bill references the “Taiwan model” of combating COVID-19, which has proved successful because Taiwan, with a population equivalent to that of Australia, has not had to lock down cities and has only recorded 10 deaths.
Despite Taiwan’s warning as early as Dec. 31, 2019, that the coronavirus had the potential for person-to-person transmission, the WHO had ignored the warning and did not consider the disease an international health crisis until the end of January last year, the bill says.
The exclusion of Taiwan from the WHO has been proven to be against the interests of the international community, especially when the WHO has channels to allow the participation of political entities not considered nations, it says.
International bodies, including the World Health Assembly (WHA) and the ICAO, provided ways for Taiwan to participate in both organizations from 2009 to 2016 without changing the “status quo” of cross-strait relations, the bill says.
It also says that Taiwan’s inclusion in international bodies would be a boon for the international community, as its GDP, on a par with that of Sweden, makes it one of the top Asian economies.
Enabling Taiwan’s participation in international bodies, using the model adopted by the WHA and ICAO from 2009 to 2016, should become a pillar of French diplomatic policy, the bill concludes.
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
Both sides of the Taiwan Strait share a political foundation based on the “1992 consensus” and opposition to Taiwanese independence, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today said during her meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Both sides of the Strait should plan and build institutionalized and sustainable mechanisms for dialogue and cooperation based on that foundation to make peaceful development across the Strait irreversible, she said. Peace is a shared moral value across the Strait, and both sides should move beyond political confrontation to seek institutionalized solutions to prevent war, she said. Mutually beneficial cross-strait relations are what the
ECONOMIC COERCION: Such actions are often inconsistently applied, sometimes resumed, and sometimes just halted, the Presidential Office spokeswoman said The government backs healthy and orderly cross-strait exchanges, but such arrangements should not be made with political conditions attached and never be used as leverage for political maneuvering or partisan agendas, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks after China earlier in the day announced 10 new “incentive measures” for Taiwan, following a landmark meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) in Beijing on Friday. The measures, unveiled by China’s Xinhua news agency, include plans to resume individual travel by residents of Shanghai and China’s Fujian
RSS