Taiwan must not rely on China’s so-called goodwill for its WHO bid, officials, academics and social advocates said yesterday in Taipei, urging president-elect Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to avoid looking for a compromise with Beijing before moving on important issues such as public health.
At a forum held by the Foundation of Medical Professionals Alliance in Taiwan on the challenges the country will face this year in its attempt to join the world health body, panelists panned Ma’s policy of “cross-strait affairs first, foreign affairs second” as “detrimental” to healthcare in the nation.
“In an international setting, Taiwan and China should enjoy equal footing when engaging in negotiations. However, if the negotiations are held behind closed doors, Taiwan will undoubtedly be negotiating at a disadvantage,” said Jiang Huang-zhi (姜皇池), associate professor of law at National Taiwan University.
He said negotiations with China should be conducted on an open international platform to ensure that the nation’s rights were not being compromised.
Even following Ma’s election victory, China would still bar the nation’s WHO bid unless Taiwan was willing to relent by becoming part of the Chinese delegation or be an “associate member” to China, Jiang said.
Since the Taiwanese people would never agree to the options offered by China, the issue would continue to remain unresolved, he said.
In 2005, China signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the WHO to restrict Taiwan’s involvement in the health body. In the MOU, China agreed Taiwanese medical experts could enjoy “meaningful participation” in WHO-related events.
However, the Department of Health said the nation’s access to those events had not seen any significant improvement since the MOU.
“This is why we are saying meaningful participation is meaningless unless Taiwan can become an observer at the World Health Assembly (WHA),” said Lin Yong-le (林永樂), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of International Organization.
The WHA is the decision-making body of the WHO and it meets annually to discuss pertinent issues. Since 1997, Taiwan has sought to become an assembly observer, but all attempts have been rejected by Beijing.
Department of Health Deputy Director-General Chen Tzay-jinn (陳再晉) said Beijing has repeatedly failed to make good on its pledge to pass WHO information on to Taiwan in a timely fashion, as indicated in the MOU.
For example, in the case of the recent entrovirus outbreak in China, although the story hit the international media in the middle of last month, China did not officially notify Taiwan of the fatal disease outbreak until four days ago, he said.
Foundation president Wu Shu-ming (吳樹民), who has been championing Taiwan’s WHO membership since 1996, urged Ma to work closely with lobbying groups and heed their suggestions.
“We are able to provide him with valuable suggestions since we have been working on it for over a decade,” he said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by