History will not be kind to Beijing or the WHO

It is no surprise that Taiwan has once again been denied entry to the World Health Organization (WHO) and prevented from even participating in meetings. What is puzzling is that China says that "blood is thicker than water," but at the same time acts against the interests of the Taiwanese people.

When Taiwan was suffering during the SARS epidemic in 2003, it got no help from the WHO. No SARS-related information or rapid test reagents could be obtained directly. China just stood by and watched as Taiwanese people died. They seemed to think that simply holding a video conference with Taipei constituted assistance.

What joke! Taiwan's healthcare standards are superior to that of China -- so who is it that should be offering assistance?

China ruthlessly seeking to undermine Taiwan's national title. Taiwan has recently been overwhelmed by pressure at various international academic gatherings as China works to force it to change the title under which it participates in these organizations to "Chinese Taipei." This has caused confusion among foreigners.

China's to undermine our national title has stirred up resentment in Taiwan. It has also revealed China's muddleheadedness and ignorance. If China finds the word "Taiwan" so objectionable, why do Chinese leaders say that the future of the Taiwan Strait is in the hands of the people of "Taiwan"? Is this a slip of the tongue?

But then again, if they said that "the future of the Taiwan Strait is in the hand of the people of Chinese Taipei" they would be laughed at. What's more, if such absurd logic was justified, China should also punish those who say that they are from "Shandong," rather than "Chinese Jinan," for claiming to be from Shandong could imply the ideology of Shandong independence. Such reasoning is clearly absurd.

On one occasion, a reporter asked me how the public benefits from WHO membership. It is not a matter of obtaining benefits, but rather maintaining national dignity through the use of our legitimate national title. We cannot accept unreasonable requests to downgrade Taiwan's status to the level of a province under China's jurisdiction, nor can we be without a title.

In 2002, when I went to Senegal with the Department of Health on an immunization project, we met with the local WHO representative. But when we asked if he would be photographed with us, he ran away. This clearly gives the lie to the idea that "blood is thicker than water."

China's obstruction of our WHO bid is not surprising, because we know how addlebrained the Chinese government is. They believe that if they can't see Taiwan, then it presents no threat. But what they don't see is the resentment they have sparked here.

The WHO just amended its guidelines to incorporate the principle of "universal application." This amendment should allow the WHO to interact with politically undefined territories such as Taiwan. But we can expect that before interacting with the WHO, Taiwan will still be required to seek China's approval -- and it would be impossible for us to accept such a belittling and unreasonable request.

We must spare no effort in directly joining the WHO, and insist on entering the WHO under the right and proper name of "Taiwan." Although the path to truth may be difficult, Taiwan should not relent in its will to forge ahead. The ruthlessness and unreasonableness of China and the WHO today will be recorded in history.

Lee Ping-ing is an associate professor of the Department of Pediatrics at National Taiwan University Hospital.

TRANSLATED BY LIN YA-TI