The government has decided once again not to make any formal UN bids during the annual session of the UN General Assembly next month, Minister of Foreign Affairs Timothy Yang (楊進添) said yesterday.
This does not mean that the government has given up on its effort to participate in the UN, but that it has changed its strategy in accordance with changes in cross-strait and international situations, he said.
The government will continue to take a pragmatic approach toward Taiwan’s participation in the UN’s specialized agencies, he said.
Taiwan began trying to reenter the UN in 1993. In 2008, the government shifted strategy to promote a bid to “participate meaningfully in the activities of specialized UN agencies,” in line with President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) policy of flexible diplomacy.
Last year, it campaigned to take part in the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the International Civil Aviation Organization and that effort has won the support of many countries over the past year, Yang said.
For example, the US House of Representatives adopted a resolution on July 29 calling for observer status for Taiwan in the aviation group, something the European Parliament had called for in March, he said.
In related news, the annual conference of the 21-member Asian-Pacific Parliamentarians’ Union wrapped up in Tokyo on Wednesday with a joint communique backing Taiwan’s entry into a global climate treaty.
The union said in a statement that Taiwan should take part in the UNFCCC and that it would discuss the proposal again at its conference next year.
More than 70 parliamentarians from Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, Kiribati, Micronesia and Palau attended the two-day event.
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), who headed Taiwan’s 15-member delegation, told the closing ceremony that no single country was capable of devising a comprehensive solution to handle industrial development and environmental protection, because such an effort required the participation of all countries. Taiwan was ready to help in the effort, he said.
The Taiwanese delegates also met officials from Japanese political parties and the government during their time in Tokyo.
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
A registered sex offender from the US who went missing after entering Taiwan has been found and would be deported in light of the risk he poses to the public, the National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday. The agency launched a search for Levi Forrest Wallace, 43, after it was informed by the American Institute of Taiwan (AIT) that he had entered Taiwan on Oct. 2 on a tourist visa. He was not on the US government’s wanted list. Wallace was sentenced to 90 days in jail with a two-year probation in 2001 after he was convicted of sexual delinquency of
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