A senior EU lawmaker expressed full support for Taiwan’s bid to join the UN’s specialized agencies this year and urged the European Parliament to show goodwill toward the bid, a Brussels-based magazine said in a report on Thursday.
Center-right parliamentarian Georg Jarzembowski, chairman of the parliament’s Taiwan Friendship Group, was quoted by the Parliament Magazine on its Web site as saying he “fully endorsed” Taiwan’s move.
“It is a perfectly reasonable and well-founded request and the very least China can do. After the success of the Olympics, it would represent an appropriate goodwill gesture on the part of Beijing,” he said.
Pointing out that Taiwan’s inclusion in such organizations is vitally important not just for Taiwan but for the rest of the world, Jarzembowski said that Taiwan’s exclusion from the WHO has been detrimental to the health rights of the 23 million people of Taiwan and foreigners residing in and traveling to Taiwan.
The WHO, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the International Maritime Organization (IMO) are among the 16 UN specialized bodies that Taiwan cites in its latest bid for meaningful participation in UN activities.
Taiwan failed in its previous annual bids over the past 15 years to seek full membership in the world body because of obstruction by China.
This year, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government changed its strategy to focus on meaningful participation in one or more of the UN specialized agencies.
Two of the nation’s 23 diplomatic allies — St. Vincent and the Solomon Islands — submitted Taiwan’s bid proposal to the UN Secretariat on Aug. 15.
The report also quoted Edward McMillan-Scott, a vice president of the European Parliament, as saying : “I still think Taiwan should push for full membership of the UN.”
The new bid is widely seen as a crucial test to see if China accepts President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) olive branch of a diplomatic truce with Beijing.
However, Chinese Ambassador to the UN Wang Guangya (王光亞) has already blasted Taiwan’s allies for trying to put Taiwan’s UN participation bid on the General Assembly’s agenda.
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) is to begin his one-year alternative military service tomorrow amid ongoing legal issues, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. Wang, who last month was released on bail of NT$150,000 (US$4,561) as he faces charges of allegedly attempting to evade military service and forging documents, has been ordered to report to Taipei Railway Station at 9am tomorrow, the Alternative Military Service Training and Management Center said. The 33-year-old would join about 1,300 other conscripts in the 263rd cohort of general alternative service for training at the Chenggong Ling camp in Taichung, a center official told reporters. Wang would first
MINOR DISRUPTION: The outage affected check-in and security screening, while passport control was done manually and runway operations continued unaffected The main departure hall and other parts of Terminal 2 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport lost power on Tuesday, causing confusion among passengers before electricity was fully restored more than an hour later. The outage, the cause of which is still being investigated, began at about midday and affected parts of Terminal 2, including the check-in gates, the security screening area and some duty-free shops. Parts of the terminal immediately activated backup power sources, while others remained dark until power was restored in some of the affected areas starting at 12:23pm. Power was fully restored at 1:13pm. Taoyuan International Airport Corp said in a
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