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Taiwan's exclusion from WHO poses risks

In January, members of the Foundation of Medical Professionals' Alliance in Taiwan, where I serve as president, visited all the representatives of EU countries in Taiwan to thank them for their support of the nation's "meaningful participation" in the WHO.

Although both the US and Japan have expressed support for the nation's bid to obtain observer status at the WHO, the EU member states have expressed reservations on the matter. Nonetheless, we appreciate the EU's support for Taiwan's "meaningful participation."

We realize, however, that unless Taiwan obtains full WHO membership, all forms of assistance will be limited.

During the SARS crisis, China attempted to cover up the severity of the epidemic within its national borders. Given Taiwan's lack of WHO representation, Taiwanese suffered and global health security was threatened. Last year, Bei-jing also had to curb a rabies outbreak that killed 1,735 people between January and August. And just on March 1, the WHO once again confirmed a case of human infection with the H5N1 avian flu virus in Fujian Province.

The "three small links" and rampant smuggling activities between Taiwan's outlying islands of Kinmen and Matsu and China's Fujian Province put Taiwan at risk of bird flu transmission. Beijing had already shown during the SARS crisis its duplicity and inability to control epidemic outbreaks, putting Taiwan's health security at risk.

Taiwan urgently needs to collaborate with the WHO to prevent a repetition of a SARS-like tragedy. Only by obtaining full WHO membership can Taiwan gain full access to information on epidemics. This is why we urge the EU to support Taiwan's bid for WHO membership.

WHO legal counsel Gian Luca Burci once said in private that WHO meetings cover so many fields that it was hard to tell how many meetings the global body organizes each year and how many "meaningful meetings" Taiwan has been excluded from. Accordingly, it is meaningless to discuss the number of meetings in which Taiwan was allowed to join.

In 2005, a secret memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed by the WHO Secretariat and Beijing stated that any information or invitation the WHO plans to extend to Taiwan must first be approved by China. For Taiwan to participate in a WHO meeting, it should ask for permission from the WHO, which in turn would ask for Beijing's approval -- a process that takes around four weeks to complete. Even if Taiwanese experts are allowed to participate in WHO meetings, they are open to unreasonable obstruction from Beijing, which is what happened several times last year.

We therefore urge the WHO to refrain from signing anymore MOUs with China without informing other member states. An international organization like the WHO should uphold transparency. This kind of secret deal may damage the interest not only of Taiwan but also of other WHO member states, prompting doubts about the organization's ability to govern. It is ridiculous that China, which has hundreds of missiles aimed at?Taiwan, is allowed to filter information the WHO forwards to Taiwan.

Such behavior on the WHO's part diminishes its status to that of a Chinese -- rather than a world -- health organization. We therefore call on all WHO member states to urge the international agency to publicize the details of the MOU it signed with China to ensure that Taiwan is not excluded from the international community for political reasons.

The WHO should also accept Taiwan as a member state to prove that its founding spirit and guidelines are meaningful.

Wu Shu-min is the president of the Foundation of Medical Professionals Alliance in Taiwan.

Translated by Daniel Cheng
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