The World Organisation for Animal Heath (OIE) will revise its charter to change the term “member country” to “member” as a friendly gesture to Taiwan, a senior Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said.
Taiwan gained entry to the OIE in 1954 under the name “Republic of China (Taiwan),” but was forced to change its title to “Taipei China” after Beijing was admitted to the organization in 1992.
In 2007, China again pressured members of the Paris-based OIE to adopt a resolution downgrading Taiwan’s membership status to “non-sovereign regional member.”
Although China succeeded in having Taiwan’s membership status downgraded, the OIE agreed to change Taiwan’s title from “Taipei China” to “Chinese Taipei” after the intervention of the US, Japan and the EU.
But as the OIE Charter makes no mention of “non-sovereign regional members,” there was no basis for the 2007 resolution, the official said yesterday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The OIE Secretariat plans to revise the charter to replace the term “member country” with “member,” he said, to avoid the differentiation of members as “member countries” and “non-sovereign regional members” and ensure that all members are on an equal footing.
The official said the change would make it clear that the 2007 resolution was baseless.
He said the ministry was happy with the OIE’s move and hoped that other international organizations would realize that Taiwan and China had stopped their political wrangling and treat Taiwan fairly so that it could deepen its contributions to the international community.
He also said the 2007 resolution had not affected the OIE’s operations or Taiwan’s participation.
When Council of Agriculture official Sung Hua-tsung (宋華聰) attended OIE meetings, he still wore a name tag bearing the word “member” as did the representatives of other member states. On the OIE Web site, Taiwan was listed as one of the 172 member states under the name “Taipei (Chinese),” the official said.
The ministry official said nonpolitical international bodies like the OIE were unhappy with political wrangling between Taiwan and China at the organizations.
Cross-strait relations have warmed since President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took office last year, the official said, and the world has seen the benefits of increased cross-strait interaction.
The 77th OIE assembly will be held between May 24 and May 29 in Paris.
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