KMT ABSENCE:The DPP called for cross-caucus talks, hoping for a legislature-wide consensus condemning China’s action, but the main opposition party stayed away
Taipei Times
Date: May 13, 2017
By: Alison Hsiao / Staff reporter, with CNA
The WHO yesterday left open the possibility that Taiwan could still attend its World
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators chat on the legislative floor in Taipei yesterday. Photo: Huang Yao-cheng, Taipei Times
Health Assembly (WHA), saying talks are continuing, despite China’s insistence that a delegation from Taiwan be excluded for the first time since 2009.
The WHA, the decisionmaking body of the WHO, on Monday closed its online registration for the May 22 to 31 event.
Taiwan’s exclusion is widely seen as the latest move by China to clamp down on the nation’s international participation.
Tim Armstrong, who heads the WHO’s department of governing bodies, said that for now, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan (陳馮富珍), who is from Hong Kong, “is not in a position to issue an invitation for Taiwanese observers to attend to the World Health Assembly.” [FULL STORY]