The European Parliament this week passed resolutions that support Taiwan’s bid to participate in the WHO and its intention to negotiate a trade pact with Taiwan.
During its plenary session from Monday to Thursday, the parliament approved resolutions on the foreign policy consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak and the EU’s trade policy, parts of which were viewed as friendly toward Taiwan by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In a statement yesterday, the ministry welcomed the passage of the resolutions and thanked the parliament for its support for Taiwan.
Photo: Reuters
In the first resolution, the parliament cited Beijing’s increasing threats to Taiwan, the crackdown on Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement and Chinese persecution of Uighurs.
It also said that it “regrets China’s isolation of Taiwan in the WHO” and calls on its member states “to advocate Taiwan’s membership as an observer” in the WHO, the World Health Assembly (WHA) and other international organizations.
The resolution cited Taiwan’s effective handling of COVID-19 and its expertise in responding to the disease as among the reasons that it should not be excluded from the WHO and the WHA, the WHO’s decisionmaking body.
It also said that China had used “‘virus diplomacy’ against the EU with the ambition of shaping its global image as a benevolent power.”
Taiwan, which was expelled from the WHO in 1972 after giving up its UN seat in late 1971, has not been able to attend the WHA due to objections from China, except for the eight years from 2009 to 2016, when cross-Taiwan Strait relations were warmer under the administration of then-president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
In the second resolution, under a section titled “Relations with strategic partners,” the parliament called on the European Commission “to start the scoping exercise and impact assessment in order to formally commence the negotiations with Taiwan as soon as possible,” without specifying what the negotiations would cover.
The government has said it was referring to a bilateral investment agreement between Taiwan and the EU.
In “Trade for all,” a communication published in October 2015, the European Commission said that the EU would explore launching negotiations on investment with Taiwan, but such talks have yet to begin.
European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said during a hearing at the European Parliament on Oct. 2 that the EU has engaged in a close dialogue on investment with Taiwan.
However, “in terms of negotiations, the immediate priority is to finalize the investment agreement with China,” Dombrovskis said.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS