Cruelbreed
04-29-2009, 03:04 PM
Someone needs to keep an eye. What I see here is this, "oh taiwan has U.S. weaponry, lets make believe we're being nice and get access to the U.S. weapons so we can copy them." Something is fishy as hell.
April 30, 2009
China to Let Taiwan Participate in U.N. Body
By KEITH BRADSHER (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/keith_bradsher/index.html?inline=nyt-per)
HONG KONG — President Ma Ying-jeou (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/ma_yingjeou/index.html?inline=nyt-per) of Taiwan (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/taiwan/index.html?inline=nyt-geo) announced Wednesday that Chinese officials had dropped their objections to Taiwan’s participation as an observer at a United Nations (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/u/united_nations/index.html?inline=nyt-org) body, a step forward in Taiwan’s effort to win greater international recognition.
China (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/china/index.html?inline=nyt-geo) strongly hinted that it was prepared to let Taiwan participate in the World Health Assembly, the decision-making body of the World Health Organization (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/w/world_health_organization/index.html?inline=nyt-org). But Beijing stopped short of explicitly saying that it had accepted a Taiwanese presence at a gathering of the assembly next month.
Mao Qunan, the spokesman for China’s Health Ministry, said in a statement that the World Health Organization had invited Taiwan to participate next month, adding that “the current arrangement reflects our overall concern and good will toward Taiwan compatriots, and this promotes the cross-straits relationship and the peaceful development of relations.”
The World Health Organization, preoccupied with the global spread of a new strain of influenza (http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/phase/en/index.html), had no immediate comment on Wednesday. Taiwan made its participation more palatable to the mainland by agreeing to use the name “Chinese Taipei” instead of its legal name, the Republic of China, or the name by which it is best known, Taiwan.
Mainland authorities blocked the W.H.O. from providing direct assistance to Taiwan during an outbreak of SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, in the spring of 2003. Independence advocates on Taiwan have used that experience to denounce closer relations with the mainland. The current threat of influenza around the world had raised the possibility that this could become a serious issue in cross-straits relations once again.
Relations between Taipei and Beijing have improved rapidly in the year since Mr. Ma took office, succeeding President Chen Shui-bian (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/_chen_shuibian/index.html?inline=nyt-per), who took a more confrontational tone. Cross-straits tourism and flights have expanded, China has sent pandas to the Taipei zoo and negotiators agreed last weekend to allow broader operations across the Taiwan Strait by Taiwanese and mainland businesses.
But Beijing’s longstanding efforts to woo Taiwan’s dwindling group of allies — mainly small countries in the Pacific, the Caribbean and Africa — left many Taiwanese afraid that their country would be isolated internationally, and contributed to popular support in Taiwan for participation in the World Health Assembly.
In an interview at the presidential palace in Taipei on Feb. 12, Mr. Ma was mostly conciliatory toward Beijing but emphatic that Taiwan’s international space be protected.
“There is a clear link between cross-strait relations and our international space,” he said then. “We’re not asking for recognition; we only want room to breathe.”
Hsiao Bi-khim, the international affairs director of former President Chen’s Democratic Progressive Party, which is now the main opposition party, welcomed participation at next month’s meeting but expressed concern that the government has been negotiating with Beijing in considerable secrecy without consulting the opposition or the general public in Taiwan.
“This came about through black box negotiations,” she said. “We are concerned that our government has given out political concessions.”
April 30, 2009
China to Let Taiwan Participate in U.N. Body
By KEITH BRADSHER (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/keith_bradsher/index.html?inline=nyt-per)
HONG KONG — President Ma Ying-jeou (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/ma_yingjeou/index.html?inline=nyt-per) of Taiwan (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/taiwan/index.html?inline=nyt-geo) announced Wednesday that Chinese officials had dropped their objections to Taiwan’s participation as an observer at a United Nations (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/u/united_nations/index.html?inline=nyt-org) body, a step forward in Taiwan’s effort to win greater international recognition.
China (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/china/index.html?inline=nyt-geo) strongly hinted that it was prepared to let Taiwan participate in the World Health Assembly, the decision-making body of the World Health Organization (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/w/world_health_organization/index.html?inline=nyt-org). But Beijing stopped short of explicitly saying that it had accepted a Taiwanese presence at a gathering of the assembly next month.
Mao Qunan, the spokesman for China’s Health Ministry, said in a statement that the World Health Organization had invited Taiwan to participate next month, adding that “the current arrangement reflects our overall concern and good will toward Taiwan compatriots, and this promotes the cross-straits relationship and the peaceful development of relations.”
The World Health Organization, preoccupied with the global spread of a new strain of influenza (http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/phase/en/index.html), had no immediate comment on Wednesday. Taiwan made its participation more palatable to the mainland by agreeing to use the name “Chinese Taipei” instead of its legal name, the Republic of China, or the name by which it is best known, Taiwan.
Mainland authorities blocked the W.H.O. from providing direct assistance to Taiwan during an outbreak of SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, in the spring of 2003. Independence advocates on Taiwan have used that experience to denounce closer relations with the mainland. The current threat of influenza around the world had raised the possibility that this could become a serious issue in cross-straits relations once again.
Relations between Taipei and Beijing have improved rapidly in the year since Mr. Ma took office, succeeding President Chen Shui-bian (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/_chen_shuibian/index.html?inline=nyt-per), who took a more confrontational tone. Cross-straits tourism and flights have expanded, China has sent pandas to the Taipei zoo and negotiators agreed last weekend to allow broader operations across the Taiwan Strait by Taiwanese and mainland businesses.
But Beijing’s longstanding efforts to woo Taiwan’s dwindling group of allies — mainly small countries in the Pacific, the Caribbean and Africa — left many Taiwanese afraid that their country would be isolated internationally, and contributed to popular support in Taiwan for participation in the World Health Assembly.
In an interview at the presidential palace in Taipei on Feb. 12, Mr. Ma was mostly conciliatory toward Beijing but emphatic that Taiwan’s international space be protected.
“There is a clear link between cross-strait relations and our international space,” he said then. “We’re not asking for recognition; we only want room to breathe.”
Hsiao Bi-khim, the international affairs director of former President Chen’s Democratic Progressive Party, which is now the main opposition party, welcomed participation at next month’s meeting but expressed concern that the government has been negotiating with Beijing in considerable secrecy without consulting the opposition or the general public in Taiwan.
“This came about through black box negotiations,” she said. “We are concerned that our government has given out political concessions.”