In an interview with CNN yesterday, KMT Chairman Lien Chan (
Taiwan's bid to gain observer status at the World Health Assembly (WHA) was rejected for a seventh time on Monday thanks to an unprecedented effort led by China's Vice Premier and Minister of Health Wu Yi (
In the interview with CNN reporter Mike Chinoy, Lien said that China's move to block Taiwan from the international health body had hurt the feelings of the Taiwanese.
In recounting Lien's remarks made during the half-hour interview at KMT headquarters, party spokesman Alex Tsai (
Noting that SARS is a problem not just for Taiwan but also for the international community, Lien said the two sides of the Strait should respect each other and work together to fight this common threat.
"It is a new era with new challenges surfacing. We hope that Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), being China's new leader, would muster new courage and adopt a new mind-set when tackling these events," Tsai quoted Lien as saying.
China completed a leadership transition in mid-March during which Hu assumed the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and the presidency of China.
When asked to comment on the Chen Shui-bian (
Nonetheless, Lien said that, given the DPP administration's lack of experience, it acted in somewhat of a frenzy and state of confusion in the early stages of the outbreak.
"We hope the government will soon get its act together in the fight against the disease," Lien said.
When asked if SARS would impact his presidential campaign, Lien said the disease is a separate issue and stressed that fighting the outbreak is a task that must be carried out regardless of party affiliation.
Lien will run for president in next year's elections.
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
A Taiwanese woman on Sunday was injured by a small piece of masonry that fell from the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican during a visit to the church. The tourist, identified as Hsu Yun-chen (許芸禎), was struck on the forehead while she and her tour group were near Michelangelo’s sculpture Pieta. Hsu was rushed to a hospital, the group’s guide to the church, Fu Jing, said yesterday. Hsu was found not to have serious injuries and was able to continue her tour as scheduled, Fu added. Mathew Lee (李世明), Taiwan’s recently retired ambassador to the Holy See, said he met
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
A BETRAYAL? It is none of the ministry’s business if those entertainers love China, but ‘you cannot agree to wipe out your own country,’ the MAC minister said Taiwanese entertainers in China would have their Taiwanese citizenship revoked if they are holding Chinese citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. Several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑) and Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜), earlier this month on their Weibo (微博) accounts shared a picture saying that Taiwan would be “returned” to China, with tags such as “Taiwan, Province of China” or “Adhere to the ‘one China’ principle.” The MAC would investigate whether those Taiwanese entertainers have Chinese IDs and added that it would revoke their Taiwanese citizenship if they did, Chiu told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper
RSS