The nation’s campaign to rejoin the UN this year would highlight its achievements in containing COVID-19 and its commitment to multilateralism, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday.
The 75th session of the UN General Assembly is slated to open on Sept. 15 at the UN headquarters in New York City, with its general debate set to start on Sept. 22 under the theme “The Future We Want, the UN We Need: Reaffirming Our Collective Commitment to Multilateralism.”
The ministry’s campaign would highlight Taiwan’s willingness and ability to join the UN bid to curb the COVID-19 pandemic and revive the global economy through multilateral efforts, MOFA Secretary-General Lily Hsu (徐儷文) told a news conference in Taipei.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
It would also reiterate the nation’s three appeals: The UN should take immediate action to address the improper exclusion of 23.5 million Taiwanese from UN institutions, rectify its improper practices of depriving Taiwanese and the Taiwanese media of their rights to visit or attend events at UN premises; and ensure Taiwan can participate in mechanisms and events related to the UN Sustainable Development Goals through equal and dignified means, Hsu said.
As usual, the ministry would ask the nation’s diplomatic allies to speak up for Taiwan during the debate and write to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, she said.
The ministry would also hold General Assembly-related events at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in New York City, said Hsu, who was director-general of the TECO in New York before assumed her current post, adding that most of the events would be held virtually due to COVID-19-related crowd size restrictions.
On Sept. 23 last year, Hsu was invited by the US to attend a speech by US President Donald Trump at the UN headquarters, which was regarded as a diplomatic breakthrough in Taiwan.
HIGH STAKES: An attack on Taiwan could prompt a joint response from the US and Japan, and trigger a global conflict that could bring down the CCP, Liu Tai-ying said The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) would not be able to launch an invasion of Taiwan for at least another 10 years, Taiwan Research Institute founder Liu Tai-ying (劉泰英) said on Friday. To occupy Taiwan, China needs to transport at least 300,000 to 400,000 troops across the Taiwan Strait during battle, but it would lack the ability to do so for at least another decade, said Liu, a former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) treasurer and a close aide to former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝). The challenges that China would face during an attempted invasion of Taiwan would be even greater than those
Taiwan from Thursday is to reinstate visa exemptions for passport holders from 65 countries. Mandatory quarantine for arriving travelers is to be lifted on Oct. 13 , when restrictions on inbound and outbound tour groups are also to be lifted. The following is a list of answers to common questions regarding how the new regulations are to affect inbound international visitors Which passports will have visa-free entry privileges? Eleven more countries on Thursday are to join 54 countries that were given visa-free privileges on Sept. 12. Passport holders from Japan, South Korea, Chile, Israel and Nicaragua can stay in Taiwan for up to 90 days without a visa. Taiwan is also to resume 30-day visa-free stays for citizens of the Dominican Republic, Singapore and Malaysia. Passport holders from Thailand, Brunei and the Philippines are to be allowed to stay in Taiwan for 14 days visa-free. Taiwan on Sept. 12 resumed 90-day visa-free entry for passport holders from the US, the UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New
HAWAII MODEL: While Hawaii held a referendum on becoming the 50th US state, Taiwan has never applied to join the People’s Republic of China, Miles Yu said China comparing Taiwanese independence to Hawaii seeking independence from the US is illogical, as Taiwan has never applied to be a part of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Hudson Institute senior fellow Miles Yu (余茂春) said over the weekend. Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅), who is in New York for the UN General Assembly, has given multiple talks asserting Chinese sovereignty over Taiwan. In a speech to the Asia Society on Thursday, Wang likened Taiwan to Hawaii. “Just as the US would not allow Hawaii to break away,” Beijing “reserves the right” to seek unification, Wang told the gathering. The
Taiwanese on average first use pornographic material at the age of 14, an international survey found on Wednesday. Researchers at National Cheng Kung University, who conducted the survey in the nation, said 50.2 percent of Taiwanese respondents said they used pornographic material two to three times per month over the past year. Lin Chung-ying (林宗瑩), an associate professor at the university’s Institute of Allied Health Sciences, said the results indicate that Taiwanese are less sexually active than people in other countries, especially in the West. Taiwanese on average masturbate 10 percent less often than respondents from other nations in the survey, Lin said. The
RSS