Taiwan vowed yesterday to take whatever action necessary to defend its official title in an Asian medical student group.
Lin Wen-tong (林文通), director of the Ministry of Education’s Bureau of International Cultural and Educational Relations, said that Taiwan would not oppose the Asian Medical Students Association (AMSA) accepting China as a member, but said that a proposal by Beijing to change Taiwan’s title from “AMSA-Taiwan” to “AMSA-Taiwan, China” was totally unacceptable.
The name-change proposal is to be voted on in a Feb. 27 AMSA members’ meeting.
AMSA, a non-governmental organization founded by Taiwan, Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia in 1985, now has 20 members.
AMSA-Taiwan said it launched a campaign last week to solicit the support of other AMSA members to safeguard Taiwan’s name.
“AMSA-Taiwan is excited about the potential of our Chinese medical student friends to join AMSA, and to play a more active role in this international medical students’ platform, as we believe friendship and medicine should be beyond borders,” a statement in English released by AMSA-Taiwan read. “However, we are regretful to learn that AMSA-China has brought political interference into AMSA, a non-political students’ organization. We consider such unnecessary political interference to be detrimental to the progress and development of AMSA.”
As of press time yesterday, the on-line signature drive has garnered more than 1,100 signatures from students in Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan and the US.
AMSA-Taiwan chairperson Chen Ying-chi (陳映綺), a student at Chung Shan Medical University’s School of Medicine, slammed China’s proposal as unreasonable.
“It’s an undeniable fact that Taiwan is a founding member of AMSA. To change AMSA-Taiwan’s name undoubtedly runs counter to the AMSA’s history,” she said.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) said “the incident again proves that President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) modus vivendi diplomatic truce with China is naive.”
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
SEPARATE: The MAC rebutted Beijing’s claim that Taiwan is China’s province, asserting that UN Resolution 2758 neither mentions Taiwan nor grants the PRC authority over it The “status quo” of democratic Taiwan and autocratic China not belonging to each other has long been recognized by the international community, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday in its rebuttal of Beijing’s claim that Taiwan can only be represented in the UN as “Taiwan, Province of China.” Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) yesterday at a news conference of the third session at the 14th National People’s Congress said that Taiwan can only be referred to as “Taiwan, Province of China” at the UN. Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory, which is not only history but
CROSSED A LINE: While entertainers working in China have made pro-China statements before, this time it seriously affected the nation’s security and interests, a source said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) late on Saturday night condemned the comments of Taiwanese entertainers who reposted Chinese statements denigrating Taiwan’s sovereignty. The nation’s cross-strait affairs authority issued the statement after several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑), Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜) and Michelle Chen (陳妍希), on Friday and Saturday shared on their respective Sina Weibo (微博) accounts a post by state broadcaster China Central Television. The post showed an image of a map of Taiwan along with the five stars of the Chinese flag, and the message: “Taiwan is never a country. It never was and never will be.” The post followed remarks
NATIONAL SECURITY: The Chinese influencer shared multiple videos on social media in which she claimed Taiwan is a part of China and supported its annexation Freedom of speech does not allow comments by Chinese residents in Taiwan that compromise national security or social stability, the nation’s top officials said yesterday, after the National Immigration Agency (NIA) revoked the residency permit of a Chinese influencer who published videos advocating China annexing Taiwan by force. Taiwan welcomes all foreigners to settle here and make families so long as they “love the land and people of Taiwan,” Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) told lawmakers during a plenary session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. The public power of the government must be asserted when necessary and the Ministry of
Proposed amendments would forbid the use of all personal electronic devices during school hours in high schools and below, starting from the next school year in August, the Ministry of Education said on Monday. The Regulations on the Use of Mobile Devices at Educational Facilities up to High Schools (高級中等以下學校校園行動載具使用原則) state that mobile devices — defined as mobile phones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches or other wearables — should be turned off at school. The changes would stipulate that use of such devices during class is forbidden, and the devices should be handed to a teacher or the school for safekeeping. The amendments also say
RSS