JUST IN CASE: Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung said his speech stresses the value of health for all and that ‘Taiwan needs the WHA and the WHA needs Taiwan’
Taipei Times
Date: Apr 25, 2019
By: Lee I-chia / Staff reporter
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) yesterday said he has prepared
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung answers lawmakers’ questions at a meeting of the Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday.Photo: Huang Yao-cheng, Taipei Times
speaking notes for next month’s World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva, Switzerland, even though he might be relegated to the event’s sidelines if Taiwan is not invited for a third consecutive year.
Taiwan obtained an invitation to attend the annual WHA meeting as an observer from 2009 to 2016, but has not received an invitation due to Chinese pressure since President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) took office in 2016.
The Chinese-language Apple Daily last month reported that WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier, when asked about the possibility of inviting Taiwan this year, said that without “cross-strait understanding” an invitation would not be forthcoming.
At a Legislative Yuan committee meeting yesterday, Chen said that “several like-minded countries have expressed strong support for us to attend the WHA this year.”
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