Department of Health Minister Yeh Ching-chuan (葉金川) said late on Saturday that Taiwan’s sovereignty was not and would not be eclipsed during the annual meeting of the WHO from today until Friday.
Yeh, who arrived in Geneva on Saturday to attend the 62nd World Health Assembly (WHA) at the head of a 15-member delegation of Taiwanese health officials and experts, called on Taiwanese to rest assured on the question of sovereignty.
“Please don’t worry. We would take action if Taiwan’s sovereignty were at risk of being compromised,” Yeh said.
Taiwan was invited by WHO Director-General Margaret Chan (陳馮富珍) on April 28 to attend the WHA meeting as an observer under the title “The Department of Health, Chinese Taipei.”
This marked the first time in 38 years that the Republic of China (ROC) would participate in a meeting hosted by a UN agency. Taiwan will attend as the seventh observer.
Addressing CNA reporters at a souvenir shop at the Palais des Nations — the venue of the WHA meeting — Yeh lamented the fact that “there is no ROC national flag here.”
“We still have a long way to go,” he said.
Meanwhile, Yeh said the invitation to Taiwan to take part in this year’s WHA as an observer was the result of improved cross-strait relations since President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) came to office.
Yeh said that while it was natural for Taiwanese health officials to meet their Chinese counterparts during the five-day meeting, “I don’t see any necessity for the [Department of Health] to intentionally seek contact with Chinese delegates.”
In Taipei, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said that in the section about global health on the WHO Web site, Taiwan was referred to as “China (Province of Taiwan),” which the party said made it abundantly clear that a 2005 memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between China and the WHO was in effect.
The DPP was referring to an MOU that stipulated that Taiwan could participate in the WHO’s technical meetings under the names “Taiwan, China” or “Taipei.”
DPP spokesperson Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) said that while Ma might be very pleased with Yeh’s participation at the WHA, Taiwan’s treatment on the WHO Web site “clearly shows that the approach taken to obtain observer status has undermined the sovereignty of Taiwan.”
“The government is talking a lot of nonsense,” Cheng said.
Cheng criticized the Ma administration for not seeking full WHO membership for Taiwan and deceiving Taiwanese, adding that the DPP worried that the approach used to gain WHA observer status could lead other international organizations to label Taiwan a province of China.
Cheng said the DPP advocates full WHO membership for Taiwan rather than observer status within the “one China” framework, adding that the DPP would closely watch this week’s WHA meeting for signs of attempts to denigrate Taiwan’s sovereignty.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
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