Taiwan failed in its ninth bid to be included in the World Health Organization (WHO) yesterday as the World Health Assembly (WHA) decided not to list Taiwan's WHO bid on its agenda.
After a three-hour long debate on whether to include Taiwan in the WHA's agenda, the WHA's General Committee ruled to exclude the sensitive issue.
During the discussion in the General Committee yesterday, 54 countries spoke up on the issue. Twenty-one countries voiced their staunch support for Taiwan, whereas 33 countries opposed the nation's bid.
Remarkably, two nations without diplomatic ties with Taiwan -- Fiji and Papua New Guinea -- also backed Taiwan's bid.
Meanwhile, on Sunday Malawian Health Minister H.M. Ntaba cast some light on the memorandum of understanding which China and the WHO Secretariat signed to facilitate technical exchanges between Taiwan and the WHO.
According to Ntaba, WHO Director-General Lee Jong-wook told a meeting of Commonwealth health ministers that China accepted Taiwan's participation in the WHO, but only as part of China.
Although he did not unveil all details of the memorandum, Lee spent around six minutes introducing it at the beginning of the routine meeting of Commonwealth health ministers on Sunday.
The memo states that Taiwan can only seek technical assistance from the WHO via China, and that the WHO cannot send medical experts to Taiwan without Beijing's permission, Ntaba told Taiwanese reporters before a dinner banquet with delegates of Taiwan's diplomatic allies to the WHA.
"Lee said he hoped the health ministers understood that we now have a chance of getting Taiwan to participate in the WHO," Ntaba said.
After Lee's introduction of the memorandum of understanding, Ntaba raised the question of why the WHO did not discuss the memorandum with Taiwan.
"You must speak to Taiwan and tell us what Taiwan says about it," Ntaba told Lee.
Lee, however, evaded Ntaba's question by saying he would not spend the whole meeting talking about Taiwan.
The way Lee raised the topic of the memorandum of understanding was strange, Ntaba said.
"He was not asked about it. He did not have to talk about it. It was not on the agenda," the health minister said.
Ntaba said Lee probably mentioned the issue because he wanted to "test the waters."
also see stories:
Taiwanese support WHO bid in Geneva
China tries to explain memorandum
Taiwan aims to open 18 representative offices and seven Taiwan Tourism Information Centers worldwide by next year to attract international visitors, the Tourism Administration said on Saturday. The agency has so far opened three representative offices abroad this year and would open two more before the end of the year, it said. It has also already opened information centers in Jakarta, Mumbai and Paris, and is to open one in Vancouver next month and in Manila in December, it said. Next year, it would also open offices in Amsterdam, Dubai and Sydney, it added. While the Cabinet did not mention international tourists in its
EYES AT SEA: Many marine enthusiasts have expressed interest in volunteering for coastal patrols, which would help identify stowaways and illegal fishing, the CGA said Six thousand coastal patrol volunteers are to be recruited for 159 inspection offices to enhance the nation’s response to “gray zone” conflicts, Coast Guard Administration (CGA) sources said yesterday. Volunteer teams would be established to increase the resilience of coastal defense systems in the wake of two unlawful entries attempted by Chinese over the past three months, Ocean Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said. A former Chinese navy captain drove a motorboat into the Tamsui River (淡水河) in Taipei on the eve of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, while another Chinese man sailed in a rubber boat into the Houkeng
NEXT LEVEL: The defense ministry confirmed that a video released last month featured personnel piloting new FPV drone systems being developed by the Armaments Bureau Taipei and Washington are pushing for their drone companies to work together to establish a China-free supply chain, the Financial Times reported on Friday. A delegation of high-level executives and US government officials were yesterday to arrive in Taipei to discuss with their Taiwanese counterparts collaboration on drone technology procurement and development, the report said. The executives represent 26 US manufacturers of drone and counter-drone systems, while the officials are from the US Department of Commerce and the US Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit, along with Dev Shenoy, principal director for microelectronics in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense
‘ANONYMOUS 64’: A national security official said that it is an attempt by China to increase domestic anti-Taiwanese sentiment and inflame cross-strait tensions The Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM) yesterday denied accusations by China that it had undermined regional security by carrying out cyberattacks against targets in China, adding instead that Beijing was responsible for raising tensions and undermining regional peace. The Chinese Ministry of State Security on WeChat accused a hacker group called “Anonymous 64” of targeting China, Hong Kong and Macau starting earlier this year through frequent cyberattacks. The group carried out cyberattacks to seize control of Web sites, outdoor electronic billboards and video-on-demand platforms in China, Hong Kong and Macau, it said, adding the hackers’