The government will fight for the country’s right to participate in the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) on an equal footing with other member states, despite the downgrading of Taiwan’s membership status, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Phoebe Yeh (葉非比) said yesterday.
Yeh said Taiwan, as a member of the OIE, has the right to take part in OIE affairs and activities and will send a delegation to attend the General Session of the OIE’s International Committee taking place from Sunday to Friday in Paris.
Yeh dismissed the OIE’s decision to downgrade Taiwan’s membership status to the level of a “non-sovereign regional member” as illegitimate, adding there was no such category in the OIE charter.
Under pressure from China, members of the Paris-based OIE voted in May last year in favor of a resolution asking Taiwan to continue its participation in the OIE as a “non-sovereign regional member” under the title “Chinese Taipei.”
Taiwan gained accession to the OIE in 1954 under the name, “Republic of China (Taiwan),” but was forced to change its title to “Taipei China” after Beijing was admitted to the organization in 1992.
In an attempt to push the OIE to make further concessions on Taiwan’s title, China refused to participate in OIE activities.
To try to resolve the problem, the OIE International Committee adopted a resolution in 2003 to change Taiwan’s membership name from “Taipei China” to “Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu.”
Taiwan agreed to the new designation, but China refused to take part in the final vote on the issue.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
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
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