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.
Also see story:
Chen's WHO bid garners praise from professionals
ENDEAVOR MANTA: The ship is programmed to automatically return to its designated home port and would self-destruct if seized by another party The Endeavor Manta, Taiwan’s first military-specification uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) tailor-made to operate in the Taiwan Strait in a bid to bolster the nation’s asymmetric combat capabilities made its first appearance at Kaohsiung’s Singda Harbor yesterday. Taking inspiration from Ukraine’s navy, which is using USVs to force Russia’s Black Sea fleet to take shelter within its own ports, CSBC Taiwan (台灣國際造船) established a research and development unit on USVs last year, CSBC chairman Huang Cheng-hung (黃正弘) said. With the exception of the satellite guidance system and the outboard motors — which were purchased from foreign companies that were not affiliated with Chinese-funded
PERMIT REVOKED: The influencer at a news conference said the National Immigration Agency was infringing on human rights and persecuting Chinese spouses Chinese influencer “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣) yesterday evening voluntarily left Taiwan, despite saying yesterday morning that she had “no intention” of leaving after her residence permit was revoked over her comments on Taiwan being “unified” with China by military force. The Ministry of the Interior yesterday had said that it could forcibly deport the influencer at midnight, but was considering taking a more flexible approach and beginning procedures this morning. The influencer, whose given name is Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), departed on a 8:45pm flight from Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) to Fuzhou, China. Liu held a news conference at the airport at 7pm,
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
RSS