China’s attempts at unification
The impact of a worldwide epidemic is far more terrifying than any financial crisis. Yet China dares use the World Health Assembly (WHA) invitation to pull the “one China” trick.
Taiwan has its own public health and border quarantine system that is completely independent of China’s response system. It is an autonomous, individual health entity.
Taiwan withdrew from the WHO in 1971, after it was kicked out of the UN.
However, epidemics are not constrained by state borders and incoming Cabinet spokesperson Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) was right when he said that “participation in the WHO is not only about Taiwanese right to health; Taiwan’s medical contributions to the international community are also an essential link in the global health and disease prevention system.”
Taiwan is a model student in the international community. Despite that, its position is worrying. When SARS broke out in China in November 2002, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) treated epidemic information and numbers as a state secret that were kept confidential for four months. Within a few months, SARS spread to Taiwan, and although it reported the cases to the WHO, it did not receive prevention and treatment assistance due to the interference of “one China” related rules, which resulted in the epidemic spinning out of control. In Taiwan, 346 people fell ill and 73 died.
In May 2003, the international community finally discussed the situation in Geneva, and nine friendly members of the WHA submitted a request that Taiwan be given observer status, with the US explicitly saying it would welcome Taiwan’s participation in the WHO.
Chinese representative to the WHA Wu Yi (吳儀) refused and then-Chinese ambassador to the UN in Geneva Sha Zukang (沙祖康) asked rhetorically: “Who cares about you?”
To this day, these four words remain a grave insult to Taiwanese.
China, you are stupid. You smirk at peace and repeatedly use hatred to fuel your push for unification. This then becomes the fuel for Taiwanese determination to obtain de jure independence.
At a time when nations rely on autonomy, reason and collective agreement to address disaster, China alone behaves like an occupier, making it one of the sources of the disasters facing mankind today.
Chiu Yen-yu
Kaohsiung
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