The nation's bid to join the WHO under the name "Taiwan" does not involve the change of the country's name nor does it violate his "four noes" pledge, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said yesterday.
"I hope the democratic community will support the new approach we take this year," Chen said. "We cannot use the country's official name, Republic of China [ROC], nor can we change it. That is why we use different names to join international organizations."
Chen made the remarks while receiving former US representative Henry Hyde, who used to chair the House of Representatives' Foreign Relations Committee, yesterday morning.
Taiwan joined the International Olympics Committee under the name "Chinese Taipei" and the WTO under the name "Separate customs territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu."
"But Taiwan is the best, most suitable and most beautiful name," Chen said. "It is recognized by a majority of the people."
The legislature has passed a joint resolution endorsing the campaign to apply for WHO membership under the name "Taiwan" and a poll conducted last month showed that nearly 95 percent of the people supported the idea, he said.
The president told Hyde that he had sent a letter to WHO Director-General Margaret Chan (陳馮富珍) last Wednesday. Chen told Chan that the country would like to become a member of the organization under the name "Taiwan."
The government has previously applied to become an observer at the World Health Assembly (WHA) as a "health entity" -- a term used to skirt the sensitive issue of sovereignty, in a bid to defuse China's opposition to Taiwan's participation.
As the objective of WHO is to attain the highest possible level of health for all peoples, Chen said Taiwanese people's right to health should not be discriminated against or denied.
"We paid a dear price for the enterovirous outbreak in 1998 and SARS in 2003," he said. "I do not want to see the country be left out in the global disease prevention network again."
The government would adopt a three-pronged approach this year in its 11th bid to join the WHO: applying for WHA observer status; continuing a "meaningful participation" campaign to allow Taiwan to participate in WHO-related activities and Chen's letter to Chan.
The WHO chief said in an interview with CNN last Friday that the group's 193 member states "hold on very strongly to the `one China' principle."
The US State Department has said that Washington would not back Taiwan's plan to become a WHO member and urged Taiwan to focus on "meaningful participation" in the health body, saying that the decision corresponds with Chen's "four noes" pledge.
The "four noes" refer to the pledge Chen made as part of his first inaugural speech in 2000. He promised that as long as China does not use military force against Taiwan, he would not declare independence, change the national title, enshrine the "state-to-state" model of cross-strait relations in the Constitution or endorse a referendum on formal independence.
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