President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday lashed out at the WHO Secretariat after it rejected Taiwan's bid to join the organization using the name "Taiwan."
Chen's remarks were the first formal response to the secretariat's rejection of Taiwan's membership bid on April 25. The president had sent a letter on April 11 to WHO Director-General Margaret Chan (陳馮富珍) asking that the country be allowed to join the health body.
The Central News Agency quoted WHO spokeswoman Christine McNab responding to Taiwan's request by saying: "The WHO's legal consultants, after studying UN resolutions and the WHO Charter, believe that Taiwan is not a sovereign state and is not eligible to apply for WHO membership. We have notified Taipei of this stance."
PHOTO: PATRICK LIN, AFP
Addressing a forum in Taipei on the issue, Chen reiterated that Taiwan is a sovereign state with the right to apply for WHO membership.
"It is the collective human right of the 23 million people of Taiwan, and [this right] should not be deprived by the WHO secretariat or its director-general," he said, also slamming China for what he described as its continuous suppression of Taiwan in the international community.
Citing the former East Germany as an example, Chen said whether Taiwan should be admitted into the WHO as a full member is an issue that should be determined by all WHO members.
"Taiwan has diplomatic ties with 23 WHO member countries, and one observer. Why did the WHO secretariat deny Taiwan's sovereignty and question the decision made by those 23 member countries?" Chen said.
East Germany was admitted to the WHO as a full member in 1968, after the then WHO chief asked for the issue to be included on the agenda of the World Health Assembly (WHA), the organization's highest decision-making body.
While urging the WHO to submit Taiwan's application to the WHA next month, Chen called on Taiwan's political parties and its people to unite and fight against "China's suppression" after being asked to comment on the Democratic Progressive Party's presidential primary.
"China's suppression of the collective human rights of the 23 million people of Taiwan is the important issue. In comparison, the DPP's presidential primary is nothing," he said.
Echoing Chen's remarks that the country has every right to apply to join the WHO as a full member, pro-independence panelists in a forum yesterday said that Taiwan should continue seeking the full WHO membership using the name "Taiwan."
"Applying for WHO membership under the name of Taiwan is an intelligent new policy and the correct way to go," said Chen Lung-chu (陳隆志), chairman of the New Century Foundation and director of the Taiwan United Nations Alliance.
After 10 years of failed attempts to become an observer at the WHA as a "health entity," Chen Lung-chu said Taiwan should pursue a new strategy, even though the bid failed again this year. He said the benefits of applying to be a full member are far greater than those attained on becoming a WHA observer.
"Applying for full membership under the name `Taiwan' highlights the country's sovereignty. It's time to adopt this strategy in consideration of Taiwan's fundamental and long-term interests," he said.
Wu Shuh-min (
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
SILICON VALLEY HUB: The office would showcase Taiwan’s strengths in semiconductors and artificial intelligence, and help Taiwanese start-ups connect with global opportunities Taiwan has established an office in Palo Alto, one of the principal cities of Silicon Valley in California, aimed at helping Taiwanese technology start-ups gain global visibility, the National Development Council said yesterday. The “Startup Island Taiwan Silicon Valley hub” at No. 299 California Avenue is focused on “supporting start-ups and innovators by providing professional consulting, co-working spaces, and community platforms,” the council said in a post on its Web site. The office is the second overseas start-up hub established by the council, after a similar site was set up in Tokyo in September last year. Representatives from Taiwanese start-ups, local businesses and
‘DETERRENT’: US national security adviser-designate Mike Waltz said that he wants to speed up deliveries of weapons purchased by Taiwan to deter threats from China US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, affirmed his commitment to peace in the Taiwan Strait during his confirmation hearing in Washington on Tuesday. Hegseth called China “the most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security” and said that he would aim to limit Beijing’s expansion in the Indo-Pacific region, Voice of America reported. He would also adhere to long-standing policies to prevent miscalculations, Hegseth added. The US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing was the first for a nominee of Trump’s incoming Cabinet, and questions mostly focused on whether he was fit for the
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
RSS