Taiwan’s representative office in Geneva on Saturday said that it was grateful to countries that have shown support for the nation’s participation in WHO events, following a statement by China reiterating its long-held opposition to Taiwan’s involvement in international organizations without its consent.
The office issued a statement thanking foreign governments, members of the US Congress and friends for supporting Taiwan’s involvement with the WHO and its attendance at the upcoming World Health Assembly (WHA), the decisionmaking body of the WHO.
It also rejected the statement from the Chinese mission to the UN, which repeated its position that Taiwan’s participation in international organizations, including the WHO, requires the consent of Beijing.
Photo: Reuters
The statement was released in the wake of a number of world powers, including the US and Japan, renewing their support for Taiwan’s participation in the WHA.
The WHA is to hold its 73rd session from May 17 to 21, although it might be held virtually due to travel restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The US has strongly backed Taiwan’s WHA bid, and in a teleconference between US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar and Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) last week, Azar said that Washington supported it.
China’s permanent mission to the UN on Saturday criticized the US-Taiwan teleconference.
“This is a serious breach of the one-China principle and the provisions of the Three Joint Communiques between the United States and China, as well as the one-China principle affirmed in United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758 and World Health Assembly Resolution 25.1,” it said in a statement. “By doing so, the US politicizes the epidemic prevention and sends a very wrong signal to secessionist forces in Taiwan, China. China firmly opposes it.”
In response, Taiwan’s office in Geneva said that the two resolutions “only deal with the issue of China’s representation and do not say Taiwan is a part of China,” and they do not settle the issue of Taiwan’s participation in the UN, nor do they authorize China to represent it in the UN.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday also issued a statement on the matter, saying that participation in the WHO is the hope of the vast majority of Taiwanese.
The KMT said that it hopes the statement by the Chinese mission does not represent Beijing’s final decision, and urged its decisionmakers not to overlook Taiwanese’s right to health because of political disagreements.
It also urged the Democratic Progressive Party administration to “try to face up to and deal with the crux of cross-strait relations” and to exhaust all “reasonable” and “legal” ways of seeking participation in or a return to the WHO.
Additional reporting by Sherry Hsiao
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
China has reserved offshore airspace over the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts that are usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Sunday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. The alerts, known as notice to air missions (NOTAMs), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert
RSS