Taiwan’s request to participate in this year’s International Labour Organization (ILO) conference has been rejected, marking another setback for the nation’s participation in international events, a New Power Party (NPP) official said yesterday.
The 106th session of the conference, a high-level annual event, is to be held in Geneva, Switzerland, from Monday through June 17.
NPP Secretary-General Chen Hui-min (陳惠敏) said the party was told that several International Trade Union Confederation unions and the Taipei-based Chinese National Federation of Industries (全國工業總會) have been excluded from this year’s conference.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Union and federation representatives have been excluded on the grounds that the UN does not allow non-member states to take part in its meetings. The UN agency has 187 members.
“Union and federation representatives have taken part in the conference several times in the past few years,” Chen said.
Chen made the remarks at a meeting sponsored by the Taiwan Association of University Professors in Taipei, which discussed Taiwan’s exclusion from the World Health Assembly (WHA) last month.
Presidential Office spokesman Sidney Lin (林鶴明) said Taiwan has long participated in ILO meetings, and urged the organization to follow the precedent of letting union representatives take part in its events.
Meanwhile, Taiwan Association of University Professors president Lin Hsiu-hsin (林秀幸) said that Taiwan’s exclusion from this year’s WHA and uncertainty over whether a Taipei-Shanghai Forum would be held this year have underscored that China has been changing the mode of cross-strait exchanges over the past year.
The latest incidents “will not be the last,” she said.
Taiwan first attended the WHA as an observer in 2009, a year after former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) came to power and pursued a more conciliatory China policy.
Taiwan had taken part in every WHA since then, until this year.
Its exclusion is widely seen as the latest move by China to obstruct Taiwan’s international participation, a strategy that has become more aggressive since President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) came to power in May last year.
Cross-strait relations have cooled since Tsai took office, mainly due to her refusal to heed Beijing’s calls to recognize the so-called “1992 consensus” as the sole political foundation for cross-strait exchanges.
The “1992 consensus” — a term former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) admitted making up in 2000 — refers to a tacit understanding between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese government that both sides acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
Additional reporting by Su Fang-he
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
SECURITY: The purpose for giving Hong Kong and Macau residents more lenient paths to permanent residency no longer applies due to China’s policies, a source said The government is considering removing an optional path to citizenship for residents from Hong Kong and Macau, and lengthening the terms for permanent residence eligibility, a source said yesterday. In a bid to prevent the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from infiltrating Taiwan through immigration from Hong Kong and Macau, the government could amend immigration laws for residents of the territories who currently receive preferential treatment, an official familiar with the matter speaking on condition of anonymity said. The move was part of “national security-related legislative reform,” they added. Under the amendments, arrivals from the Chinese territories would have to reside in Taiwan for
CRITICAL MOVE: TSMC’s plan to invest another US$100 billion in US chipmaking would boost Taiwan’s competitive edge in the global market, the premier said The government would ensure that the most advanced chipmaking technology stays in Taiwan while assisting Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) in investing overseas, the Presidential Office said yesterday. The statement follows a joint announcement by the world’s largest contract chipmaker and US President Donald Trump on Monday that TSMC would invest an additional US$100 billion over the next four years to expand its semiconductor manufacturing operations in the US, which would include construction of three new chip fabrication plants, two advanced packaging facilities, and a research and development center. The government knew about the deal in advance and would assist, Presidential
RSS