Minister of Health and Welfare Chiu Tai-yuan (邱泰源) yesterday again called for the international community’s support as he urged the WHO to let Taiwan participate as an observer in the World Health Assembly (WHA).
The annual meeting of the WHA, the decisionmaking body of the WHO, began in Geneva, Switzerland, yesterday and ends on Saturday.
As Taiwan has not been invited to attend the WHA as an observer for the eighth year in a row, a delegation of health officials and experts led by Chiu arrived in Geneva on Friday to speak up for Taiwan and take part in bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the WHA.
Photo: screen grab from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’s Facebook page
Joined by four legislators from across party lines, Chiu held an international news conference at the Geneva Press Club to speak about “How Taiwan’s participation in the WHO can contribute to a comprehensive global health network.”
“We are calling for the international community’s support and urging the WHO to act in line with this year’s WHA theme — ‘All for Health, Health for All’ — by including Taiwan in the proceedings of the WHA as an observer, and allowing Taiwan’s regular participation in WHO meetings, activities and mechanisms,” Chiu said in his opening remarks.
Taiwan supports actions that can save lives — promoting health and well-being, advancing primary healthcare, ensuring universal health coverage and meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals, but the WHO continues to exclude Taiwan for political reasons, he said.
Photo: Reuters
“I would like to reaffirm that neither UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 nor WHA Resolution 25.1 mentioned Taiwan or provide legal authorization for the People’s Republic of China [PRC] to represent Taiwan in the UN system,” he said.
“Precluding Taiwan’s meaningful participation in the WHO based on these resolutions cannot be justified,” Chiu said.
“Neither the Republic of China [Taiwan] nor the PRC is subordinate to the other,” he said, adding that that is “the status quo across the Taiwan Strait and an internationally recognized objective fact.”
“China has no right to interfere with or restrict Taiwan’s participation,” he said, stressing that only the democratically elected government of Taiwan can represent its 23 million people in the WHO and other international forums.
“We sincerely appreciate the support extended by diplomatic allies and like-minded countries for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in the WHO,” he added.
Taiwan, being a force for good, has the capability and willingness to contribute to global health and well-being, and the whole world would benefit from its inclusion to the WHO and WHA, Chiu said.
Asked what name Taiwan would use to join the WHO, Chiu said. “Taiwan is Taiwan, and our country name is the Republic of China (ROC), so using ‘Taiwan’ or ‘ROC’ for joining the WHO or the WHA is what we will insist.”
Asked if Taiwan would find alternative ways to join the WHO or the WHA, aside from winning support from diplomatic allies and like-minded countries, Chiu said that, in the past few decades, Taiwan has educated and trained many outstanding healthcare professionals, and they have not only elevated the quality of domestic healthcare, but also participated in many international organizations.
Many Taiwanese healthcare professionals also play important roles in international organizations, such as the Taiwan Medical Association, which helped draft the World Medical Association’s statement on health emergency responses, he said, adding that Taiwan has more than 100 professional healthcare groups and their efforts would be the foundation of Taiwan’s successful WHO and WHA bid.
Many Taiwanese healthcare professionals are getting further education or training in other countries and building friendships with local professionals, who might eventually also hold key positions in world organizations, so the government would continue to provide more resources to professional healthcare associations to encourage international participation, he said.
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
SHARED VALUES: The US, Taiwan and other allies hope to maintain the cross-strait ‘status quo’ to foster regional prosperity and growth, the former US vice president said Former US vice president Mike Pence yesterday vowed to continue to support US-Taiwan relations, and to defend the security and interests of both countries and the free world. At a meeting with President William Lai (賴清德) at the Presidential Office in Taipei, Pence said that the US and Taiwan enjoy strong and continued friendship based on the shared values of freedom, the rule of law and respect for human rights. Such foundations exceed limitations imposed by geography and culture, said Pence, who is visiting Taiwan for the first time. The US and Taiwan have shared interests, and Americans are increasingly concerned about China’s
RSS