Two US senators on Tuesday introduced a WHO accountability bill, seeking to withhold US funding until the organization reforms its leadership and accepts Taiwan as a member state.
US President Joe Biden has since his inauguration on Jan. 20 signed a flurry of executive orders, including one to stop the US’ withdrawal from the WHO, reversing former US president Donald Trump’s decision last year.
A WHO task force probing the origins of COVID-19 in China on Tuesday wrapped up its investigation with no breakthroughs, although it ruled out a theory that the novel coronavirus had escaped from a Chinese laboratory.
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“The mission of the WHO is to get public health information to the world so every country can make the best decisions to keep their citizens safe. The WHO not only failed its mission, but it failed the world when it comes to the coronavirus. They served as a puppet for the Chinese Communist Party — parroting misinformation and helping communist China cover up a global pandemic,” US Senator Rick Scott, a Republican, said in a news release on Tuesday.
“Last February, I called on the WHO to do its own in-depth analysis on the extent and origins of the coronavirus. It took them nearly a year to take action and we still have no answer,” he said.
“They are complicit in communist China’s effort to isolate Taiwan. There is no reason US taxpayers should be spending hundreds of millions a year, more than any other country, to fund the WHO without significant reform,” he added.
Taiwan attended the World Health Assembly, the decisionmaking body of the WHO, as an observer from 2009 to 2016, but has since been denied access.
Scott said he is proud to introduce the bill to withhold US taxpayer dollars from the WHO “until they start actually caring about public health, stop acting like a puppet for the communist China and allow Taiwan as a member.”
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and other WHO leaders must be held accountable for their dereliction of duty, and the WHO should not benefit from US tax dollars again before it undertakes comprehensive reforms, US Senator Josh Hawley, also a Republican, said in the same news release.
The first global hotel Keys Selection by the Michelin Guide includes four hotels in Taiwan, Michelin announced yesterday. All four received the “Michelin One Key,” indicating guests are to experience a “very special stay” at any of the locations as the establishments are “a true gem with personality. Service always goes the extra mile, and the hotel provides much more than others in its price range.” Of the four hotels, three are located in Taipei and one in Taichung. In Taipei, the One Key accolades were awarded to the Capella Taipei, Kimpton Da An Taipei and Mandarin Oriental Taipei. Capella Taipei was described by
EVA Airways today confirmed the death of a flight attendant on Saturday upon their return to Taiwan and said an internal investigation has been launched, as criticism mounted over a social media post accusing the airline of failing to offer sufficient employee protections. According to the post, the flight attendant complained of feeling sick on board a flight, but was unable to take sick leave or access medical care. The crew member allegedly did not receive assistance from the chief purser, who failed to heed their requests for medical attention or call an ambulance once the flight landed, the post said. As sick
The Taichung District Court yesterday confirmed its final ruling that the marriage between teenage heir Lai (賴) and a man surnamed Hsia (夏) was legally invalid, preventing Hsia from inheriting Lai’s NT$500 million (US$16.37 million) estate. The court confirmed that Hsia chose not to appeal the civil judgement after the court handed down its ruling in June, making the decision final. In the June ruling, the court said that Lai, 18, and Hsia, 26, showed “no mutual admiration before the marriage” and that their interactions were “distant and unfamiliar.” The judge concluded that the couple lacked the “true intention of
INDUSTRY: Beijing’s latest export measures go beyond targeting the US and would likely affect any country that uses Chinese rare earths or related tech, an academic said Taiwanese industries could face significant disruption from China’s newly tightened export controls on rare earth elements, as much of Taiwan’s supply indirectly depends on Chinese materials processed in Japan, a local expert said yesterday. Kristy Hsu (徐遵慈), director of the Taiwan ASEAN Studies Center at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research, said that China’s latest export measures go far beyond targeting the US and would likely affect any country that uses Chinese rare earths or related technologies. With Japan and Southeast Asian countries among those expected to be hit, Taiwan could feel the impact through its reliance on Japanese-made semi-finished products and
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