Apr.16 - Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang blasted Taiwan leader’s attempt to gain membership in World Health Organization (WHO) on Sunday, saying the island is simply “not eligible” to join the UN agency.
Qin was responding to a question concerning Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian’s application for Taiwan’s membership in WHO. Chen sent a letter to WHO chief recently, requesting the island be admitted as WHO member under the name of Taiwan.
“WHO is a UN specialized agency, whose membership is only open to sovereign states,” Qin said, adding Taiwan is simply not qualified to join it or apply for its membership.
In recent years, Taiwan authority time and again tabled Taiwan-related proposals on World Health Assembly conference, but all suffered frustrations, Qin said.
“Whatever ways the Taiwan authority takes, its schemes of making use of health issues to serve “Taiwan independence” activities are doomed to failure,” Qin said.
Taiwan had sought observer status in the WHO over the past 10 years, but has never succeeded.
Archive for category Politics
YINCHUAN, April 15 - Chinese President Hu Jintao has urged local officials to make greater efforts to fight against desertification and improve the living conditions of impoverished people in drought areas.
Hu made the appeals during his inspection tour to Ningxia, a sandy and drought autonomous region in northwest China, from Wednesday to Saturday. “We should strengthen our efforts on desertification prevention and control by relying on the power of the public and advanced technology,” Hu said. Hu asked local officials to makcontinuous efforts by sticking with environmental improvement goals and contribute to the construction of a “green wall” in the country’s western regions.
He visited families and village clinics in Xihaigu, a storied poverty-stricken area, urging officials to try their best to accelerate the development of the area and improve the livelihood of the people.
China has 174 million hectares of sandy areas that mostly locate in northern and western regions. These areas affect the lives of 400 million people and cause losses of 50 billion yuan (about 6.5 billion U.S. dollars) a year.
