According to MOFA spokeswoman Phoebe Yeh, Taiwan, as one of 172 official members of the OIE, has the right to take part in OIE affairs and activities and will send a delegation to attend the 76th General Session of the OIE’s International Committee slated for May 25 30 in Paris.

Yeh dismissed as illegitimate the OIE’s decision to downgrade Taiwan’s membership status to the level of a “non-sovereign regional member,” noting there is no such membership category in the existing OIE charter.

Under pressure from China, members of the Paris-based OIE voted in May 2007 in favor of a resolution to ask Taiwan to continue its participation in the OIE as a “non-sovereign regional member” under the title “Chinese Taipei.”

Taiwan gained accession to the OIE in 1954 under the name, “Republic of China (Taiwan),” but was forced to change to “Taipei China” after Beijing was admitted to the organization in 1992.

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