MOFA condemns Chinese action at WHO board meet
　

By Jenny W. Hsu
STAFF REPORTER, WITH CNA
Wednesday, Jan 23, 2008, Page 1

China ambushed the nation's allies on the Executive Board of the WHO by robbing them of the opportunity to speak up for Taiwan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.

El Salvador, Paraguay and Sao Tome and Principe had jointly proposed a draft resolution calling for the International Health Regulations (IHR) of 2005 to be extended to include non-members like Taiwan.

The bill, which was initially scheduled for consideration during yesterday's meeting of the 122nd session of the WHO's Executive Board, was successfully blocked by China after it unexpectedly requested that its review be advanced to Monday 10 minutes before the day's meeting was to conclude, when most of the bill's sponsors were absent.

"We strongly condemn China for disregarding the health rights of Taiwanese. We also protest against the WHO for ignoring our allies' right to speak on behalf of their draft resolution," ministry spokeswoman Phoebe Yeh (葉非比) said.

Yeh said China has never cared about the health of Taiwanese, as shown by its failure last year to inform Taiwan of a shipment of potentially toxic corn from Thailand.

She said Paraguay had yesterday proposed an amendment stipulating that all countries must be included in the framework in order to prevent gaps in global efforts against disease.

Quoting the "universal application" clause within the IHR, Paraguay said China had no legitimate authority to represent Taiwan's health interests.

Yeh told the Taipei Times that representatives from San Tome and Principe and El Salvador had also condemned Beijing's claim to represent Taiwan's health interests.

Belize, although not a board member, also spoke in favor of Taiwan.

At press time, the meeting had not been adjourned.

It was reported that China also proposed its own amendment in an effort to block Taiwan's representation in the health agreement. Sri Lanka and Djibouti seconded China's motion.

Shen Lyu-hsun (沈呂巡), the nation's representative to Geneva, said the incident showed that China's suppression of Taiwan had intensified. He protested what he called the unfair ruling by WHO Executive Board Chairman Balaji Sadasivan in rejecting the bill, saying Beijing had wielded its influence to sabotage Taipei's chance.

"Unless the WHO does something about it, Taiwan will remain a gap in the global disease surveillance system after the Executive Board meeting concludes," Shen said.

During Monday's meeting, Li Baodong (李保東), China's permanent representative to the UN in Geneva, said the draft resolution had challenged the "one China" principle. He said that with statehood as a prerequisite for implementation of the IHR, Beijing had already stated last May that the IHR applies to the "entire territory of the People's Republic of China, including ... the Taiwan Province."

An April agreement between Beijing and the WHO on Taiwan's role in the IHR stipulated that China's National Focal Point would handle routine IHR matters through existing cross-strait health communication channels, Li said.

China to probe reported stadium deaths

AFP AND AP, BEIJING
Wednesday, Jan 23, 2008, Page 5
　

Workers mingle at a construction site in front of the National Stadium in Beijing yesterday. PHOTO: AFP

China pledged yesterday to investigate a report that officials covered up the deaths of at least 10 workers building the main stadium for the Beijing Olympics in August.

Britain's Sunday Times newspaper alleged that the workers died as safety standards slipped during a rush to complete the 90,000-seat National Stadium, known as the Bird's Nest.

"This is the first I have heard of this," Li Yizhong (李毅中), China's work safety minister, told a press conference.

"I will ask the Beijing work safety watchdog to conduct an investigation and if this is found to be the case, severe punishment will be administered according to the law," he said.

The Sunday Times cited several unnamed witnesses to the deaths and alleged that officials had paid unusually high amounts of compensation to silence the families of dead employees.

Officials have never admitted to a single death on any of the dozens of Olympic construction sites.

DISMISSAL

Earlier, Sun Weide (孫維德), spokesman for the Beijing Olympics organizing committee, dismissed the report as untrue.

He said safety standards were rigorous and there was no rush to complete any venues for the Games, which run from Aug. 8 to Aug. 24.

Of the 37 arenas, 36 have already been finished while the National Stadium is scheduled to be completed by April.

"Construction of the National Stadium is going according to plan and under proper safety standards," Sun added.

Li called on people and the media yesterday to expose workplace accidents in a bid to use public pressure to ferret out the corruption and official misdeeds aggravating the country's high rate of work deaths.

Li said public whistle-blowing provides crucial clues needed by investigators, who are often hobbled by cover-ups by local officials, especially on accidents that occur in coal mines.

"We welcome the public's supervision. We welcome the reports made by people to expose corruption," Li told reporters at a news conference. "According to some tips, for example, we have found government officials who made unlawful investments in coal mines."

BAD RECORD

China has a woeful if improving record on safety, with 111,480 deaths in accidents last year. Chinese coal mines are the world's deadliest, with 3,786 miners killed, a figure that marks a 20 percent improvement from 2006.

However, the figure is believed by experts to understate casualties as mine owners and officials hide accidents to avoid costly investigations and penalties.

Kurt Campbell ON TAIWAN: Common yet different democracies


Wednesday, Jan 23, 2008, Page 8

Last week, newspapers in New Hampshire and Taiwan -- thousands of kilometers apart and meant for vastly different audiences with completely different cultures and political traditions -- carried eerily familiar pictures. In one, a despondent Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) supporter was seen somewhat in shock after the results of the legislative elections were announced, which saw a rout of the DPP at the hands of rival Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidates. The picture was accompanied by a story of what this would mean for the presidential election in March.

At the same time, a Nashua, New Hampshire, newspaper carried a very similar picture of a deflated supporter of Representative Barack Obama trudging dejectedly through the thick snow after Hillary Clinton's surprise upset in the Democratic primary.

While there is much that separates the US and Taiwan -- very different histories, national aspirations and worldviews -- there are still important things that unite them. The US and Taiwan each possesses among the most active and participatory democracies in the world and the intensity of the two presidential campaigns are cases in point.

There has been extensive discussion of late of a worrisome drift in the US-Taiwan relationship and there are indeed signs of discord and clear areas for worry.

President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) seemingly insatiable push for a referendum on joining the UN has drawn particular ire from the Bush administration. So too have persistent disagreements about defense spending and participation in international institutions created occasional tensions between Washington and Taipei.

These instances of disagreement and discord take place amid the background of China's dramatic rise to great power status. It is undeniable that China now plays a much larger role in Washington's calculation on virtually every matter of global importance, from North Korean nuclear weapons to currency woes to energy anxieties to unrest in Pakistan.

The US now needs a constructive partnership with China as never before, which has resulted in Taiwan feeling increasingly squeezed by the growing weight of China in all matters of international diplomacy and commerce.

Nevertheless, what is often forgotten behind the banal bromides that celebrate the vibrancy of Taiwanese democracy is that the US and Taiwan share a common experience of democracy, including all its many disappointments, difficulties and dilemmas that cannot be easily ignored.

Indeed, national leaders who are regularly subjected to the difficult discipline of polling stations and voting booths understand each other at some very basic, core level.

While US officials often claim to be mystified by a Taiwanese move or maneuver on an issue related to identity or national character, the truth is that deep down, Americans of virtually every stripe understand the motivations behind initiatives that at the same time are seen as disruptive or even dangerous.

What is sometimes forgotten in the occasionally tense to and fro between Washington and Taipei is that unlike the previous era of US-Taiwanese diplomacy, when national authorities could act with much less concern about public scrutiny or opposition, the current leaders must be much more responsive to public sentiment and criticism.

While it is true that, on occasion, Taiwanese leaders have taken steps that went against the advice given by Washington, these initiatives were usually undertaken with a specific domestic group of supporters in mind. In a sense, this is the essence of democracy.

The challenge for this and the next generation of US and Taiwanese leaders will be to better appreciate the pressures and interests of the other. For the US president, it will mean a simultaneous desire to maintain a stable and durable understanding with China while at the same time seeking to preserve Taiwan's security and democracy.

For the Taiwanese president, it will mean negotiating a complex path between domestic expectations for greater national identity and international standing, while taking account of the obvious desires of both Beijing and Washington to avoid actions that could trigger a crisis.

Clearly, Washington and Taipei will have their hands full, but in the complex trilateral dialogue and diplomacy between Washington, Taipei and Beijing, it is clear that the common experience of democracy has created inevitable and undeniable connections between Taiwan and the US that cannot and should not be ignored. Indeed, it is these values, along with other strategic interests, that keep the US so closely engaged in the Western Pacific.

So, as presidential campaigning continues in the US and Taiwan, it is important to keep these common political experiences in mind while both sides negotiate a complex future together.

Kurt Campbell is the chief executive officer and cofounder of the Center for a New American Security.