Whether Taiwan would be invited to attend this year’s World Health Assembly (WHA) depends on a power play within the WHO, despite open support from like-minded countries, Taiwanese observers have said.
The WHA, the decisionmaking body of the WHO, is to hold its 73rd session from May 17 to 21 in Geneva, Switzerland, although the meeting might be conducted virtually due to travel restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
US-based magazine Foreign Policy reported that Washington is seeking the support of key allies to help restore Taiwan’s observer status at the WHA and to cosign a letter asking WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to invite Taiwan to the assembly.
Photo: AP
The WHO Secretariat has the discretion to invite any non-WHO member to the WHA without calling a meeting to vote on the matter.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政) on Saturday said that the key for Taiwan’s bid to attend the WHA rests on the internal politics of the WHO, despite growing international support for the nation.
“Taiwan will have a better chance of being invited to the WHA if the US increases its maneuvering in the WHO Secretariat,” he said.
Prospect Foundation president Lai I-chung (賴怡忠) said that Tedros is extremely unlikely to invite Taiwan to the WHA, after the Ethiopian microbiologist on April 8 accused the nation of organizing personal and racist attacks against him.
However, the US might want to break the unspoken rule that Taiwan’s participation requires China’s approval, he added.
Lee Che-chuan (李哲全), a senior researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said it is difficult for Taiwan to be accepted into the WHO due to “one China” policies observed by many nations, but added that there is a chance that it could be invited to the WHA.
The Republic of China was a founding member of the WHO. However, the nation was expelled in 1972, a few months after its seat at the UN was taken over by the People’s Republic of China.
Since then, Taipei has been unable to participate in the WHA, apart from the observer status it held from 2009 to 2016, when relations with Beijing were relatively warm under the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government.
Hong Kong singer Andy Lau’s (劉德華) concert in Taipei tonight has been cancelled due to Typhoon Kong-rei and is to be held at noon on Saturday instead, the concert organizer SuperDome said in a statement this afternoon. Tonight’s concert at Taipei Arena was to be the first of four consecutive nightly performances by Lau in Taipei, but it was called off at the request of Taipei Metro, the operator of the venue, due to the weather, said the organizer. Taipei Metro said the concert was cancelled out of consideration for the audience’s safety. The decision disappointed a number of Lau’s fans who had
Commuters in Taipei picked their way through debris and navigated disrupted transit schedules this morning on their way to work and school, as the city was still working to clear the streets in the aftermath of Typhoon Kong-rey. By 11pm yesterday, there were estimated 2,000 trees down in the city, as well as 390 reports of infrastructure damage, 318 reports of building damage and 307 reports of fallen signs, the Taipei Public Works Department said. Workers were mobilized late last night to clear the debris as soon as possible, the department said. However, as of this morning, many people were leaving messages
A Canadian dental assistant was recently indicted by prosecutors after she was caught in August trying to smuggle 32kg of marijuana into Taiwan, the Aviation Police Bureau said on Wednesday. The 30-year-old was arrested on Aug. 4 after arriving on a flight to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Chang Tsung-lung (張驄瀧), a squad chief in the Aviation Police Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division, told reporters. Customs officials noticed irregularities when the woman’s two suitcases passed through X-ray baggage scanners, Chang said. Upon searching them, officers discovered 32.61kg of marijuana, which local media outlets estimated to have a market value of more than NT$50 million (US$1.56
FATALITIES: The storm claimed at least two lives — a female passenger in a truck that was struck by a falling tree and a man who was hit by a utility pole Workers cleared fallen trees and shop owners swept up debris yesterday after one of the biggest typhoons to hit the nation in decades claimed at least two lives. Typhoon Kong-rey was packing winds of 184kph when it slammed into eastern Taiwan on Thursday, uprooting trees, triggering floods and landslides, and knocking out power as it swept across the nation. A 56-year-old female foreign national died from her injuries after the small truck she was in was struck by a falling tree on Provincial Highway 14A early on Thursday. The second death was reported at 8pm in Taipei on Thursday after a 48-year-old man
RSS