Taipei, May 22 (CNA) Beijing should be held accountable for the global spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and apologize to the entire world, including Taiwan, for the potentially deadly disease, Vice President Annette Lu said Thursday.
Lu made the remarks at a roundtable forum on the impact of SARS on Taiwan held at the Presidential Office and attended by scores of public health experts and business community leaders.
Saying that Taiwan should join forces with the 32 other countries that have reported SARS cases to demand that the Beijing leadership apologize and assume responsibility for the global spread of the epidemic, Lu said Beijing owes an apology to Taiwan in particular because of its repeated brazen blocking of Taiwan on international occasions. "Beijing's humiliation of the Taiwan people is a historic and international crime that should be condemned by the whole world," she said.
Taiwan should not be defeated by SARS and the country should turn the difficult time arising from SARS into a new opportunity for an overall transformation in lifestyle, life value, production value and the environment, the vice president concluded.