An estimated 530 foreign delegates are expected to attend president-elect Ma Ying-jeou’s presidential inauguration next Tuesday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs revealed.

“There are more than 530 foreign guests, including special envoys from 22 out of 23 diplomatic allies, that will attend the inauguration ceremony,” MOFA spokeswoman Phoebe Yeh said at a press briefing.
The Caribbean allies of Haiti and the Dominican Republic are planning to dispatch a presidential office secretary-general and a ministerial level official, respectively, to the ceremony, Yeh said.
She added that although Saint Lucian President Stephenson King would not be available for the ceremony, he would pay a state visit to Taiwan later this year.
Yeh said that countries without diplomatic relations with Taiwan are also enthusiastic about Ma’s inauguration. The US will have the largest foreign presence at the ceremony, with 120 dignitaries, including congresspeople, academics and former government officials participating in the event.
A five-member delegation, led by former White House chief of staff Andrew Card, is expected to attract the most attention among the foreign guests.
The other members of Card’s delegation are AIT Chairman Raymond Burghardt, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Stephen Young, former Massachusetts lieutenant governor Kerry Healey, and Frank Fahrenkopf, a member on the board of the International Republic Institute, a statement issued last week by AIT said.
Japan is expected to have around 76 representatives attending the festivities.
Tokyo Governor Ishihara Shintaro, Mayor of Yokohama Nakada Hiroshi and Okinawa Governor Nakaima Hirokazu have all confirmed their visits, Yeh said.
Parliamentarians, think tank representatives and academics from Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, the UK, Peru and Venezuela are also expected to come, she said.

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The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) of Taiwan said recently that China had ambushed the nation’s allies on the Executive Board of the WHO by robbing them of the opportunity to speak up for Taiwan.

El Salvador, Paraguay, 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 a recent 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 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 to combat 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 those representatives from San Tome, Principe and El Salvador had also condemned Beijing’s claim to represent Taiwan’s health interests.
 
Shen Lyu-hsun the nation’s representative in 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.