Minister of Health and Welfare Lin Tzou-yien (林奏延) yesterday gave a five-minute speech at the 69th World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva, Switzerland, addressing Taiwan’s experiences in launching a national health insurance program, disease prevention and legislation for a better medical environment.
However, he used “Chinese Taipei” rather than “Taiwan” throughout his speech, and did not address the controversy over WHO Director-General Margaret Chan’s (陳馮富珍) invitation to this year’s WHA meeting, which mentioned Bejiing’s “one China” principle.
He gave the speech in English, in an apparent bid to circumvent any effort by China to influence reporting on his comments.
Photo: CNA
Lin told the assembly that the National Health Insurance program has a coverage rate of 99.9 percent of the nation’s population and a public satisfaction rate of more than 80 percent, while the nation’s life expectancy was 80 years and the nation’s infant mortality rate was 3.6 per 1,000 live births.
He also mentioned Taiwan’s challenges of rapid population aging, overloaded healthcare workers and an increasing number of medical disputes; and how they are being dealt with by passing amendments to relevant laws.
Addressing Taiwan’s effort to help prevent global spread of infectious diseases, Lin mentioned organizing international workshops to help improve regional capability for responding to Ebola, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), dengue and the Zika virus.
“We hope to work even more closely with WHO and other international institutes to strengthen the global health security,” he said.
Lin ended his speech by calling on the “WHO and its member states, to support the 23 million citizens of Chinese Taipei” by facilitating their robust participation in WHA-related meetings and activities.
“Then no one will be left behind,” he said.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tsai Shih-ying (蔡適應), who was in the audience, said he regretted that Lin did not use the name “Taiwan” in his speech.
In a Facebook post, New Party Power Legislator Freddy Lim (林昶佐), who is also in Geneva with Taiwan’s delegation to the WHA, voiced his discontent with Lin’s use of the term “Chinese Taipei.”
“While several of our diplomatic allies have supported us by calling us ‘Taiwan’ rather than the downgraded name ‘Chinese Taipei,’ Lin called us by ‘Chinese Taipei’ throughout his speech. This is just so disappointing,” Lim wrote. “Taiwan is Taiwan, not Chinese Taipei! They already gave you the microphone and allowed you to speak, and you still call yourself Chinese Taipei in an international meeting… It’s so disappointing!”
The Ministry of Health and Welfare earlier yesterday said that the Taiwanese delegation had held bilateral talks with 40 countries and international organizations on the sidelines of the WHA, including one with US Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Mathews Burwell.
During his meeting with Burwell, Lin expressed gratitude to the US for firmly supporting Taiwan’s participation in the WHO, and urged the US to continue providing assistance in supporting the nation’s bid to join in WHO’s meetings, events and mechanisms, the ministry said.
They also discussed cooperation on Zika vaccination, the Global Health Security Agenda, obesity prevention, noncommunicable disease prevention and the hope that a partnership with the US can be long and stable, the ministry said.
The Centers for Diseases Control is to also share Taiwan’s disease prevention experiences with a technical meeting at the WHA and voice the nation’s willingness to join the WHO’s Emergency Response Framework to support international society, the ministry said.
As the head of China’s delegation, National Health and Family Planning Commission Chairperson Li Bin (李斌), left Geneva on Tuesday, it is unlikely that there would be sideline talks between Taiwan and China during the rest of the meeting, the ministry said.
Additional reporting by CNA
The combined effect of the monsoon, the outer rim of Typhoon Fengshen and a low-pressure system is expected to bring significant rainfall this week to various parts of the nation, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The heaviest rain is expected to occur today and tomorrow, with torrential rain expected in Keelung’s north coast, Yilan and the mountainous regions of Taipei and New Taipei City, the CWA said. Rivers could rise rapidly, and residents should stay away from riverbanks and avoid going to the mountains or engaging in water activities, it said. Scattered showers are expected today in central and
People can preregister to receive their NT$10,000 (US$325) cash distributed from the central government on Nov. 5 after President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday signed the Special Budget for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience, the Executive Yuan told a news conference last night. The special budget, passed by the Legislative Yuan on Friday last week with a cash handout budget of NT$236 billion, was officially submitted to the Executive Yuan and the Presidential Office yesterday afternoon. People can register through the official Web site at https://10000.gov.tw to have the funds deposited into their bank accounts, withdraw the funds at automated teller
COOPERATION: Taiwan is aligning closely with US strategic objectives on various matters, including China’s rare earths restrictions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan could deal with China’s tightened export controls on rare earth metals by turning to “urban mining,” a researcher said yesterday. Rare earth metals, which are used in semiconductors and other electronic components, could be recovered from industrial or electronic waste to reduce reliance on imports, National Cheng Kung University Department of Resources Engineering professor Lee Cheng-han (李政翰) said. Despite their name, rare earth elements are not actually rare — their abundance in the Earth’s crust is relatively high, but they are dispersed, making extraction and refining energy-intensive and environmentally damaging, he said, adding that many countries have opted to
PEACE AND STABILITY: Maintaining the cross-strait ‘status quo’ has long been the government’s position, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan is committed to maintaining the cross-strait “status quo” and seeks no escalation of tensions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday, rebutting a Time magazine opinion piece that described President William Lai (賴清德) as a “reckless leader.” The article, titled “The US Must Beware of Taiwan’s Reckless Leader,” was written by Lyle Goldstein, director of the Asia Program at the Washington-based Defense Priorities think tank. Goldstein wrote that Taiwan is “the world’s most dangerous flashpoint” amid ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He said that the situation in the Taiwan Strait has become less stable
RSS