No place for Taiwan on WHO agenda

While the WHO spoke of "health for all," the exclusion of the 23 million people of Taiwan from the WHO system was simply contradictory to the WHO Constitution, Curwen said.

Curwen also said Taipei's intention to enter the WHA as "a health entity" could find similar models in the past, such as Taiwan's accession as a separate customs territory into the WTO, and its entry into APEC as an "economy."

Zhang Wen-kang (張文康), China's minister of health, then took the floor to attack the proposal as "a waste of time and resources" for the WHA meeting.

"Such a proposal by a small number of countries is a challenge to the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of China," Zhang said, adding that any move aimed at creating "one China, one Taiwan," or "two Chinas" was "doomed to failure."

Zhang also ridiculed Taipei's unprecedented proposal to enter the WHA as a "health entity," saying such a term was simply absent from any of the WHO or WHA related rules.

But heartening news for Taiwan's WHO bid came yesterday from Tokyo, as the Japanese prime minister instructed the Japanese delegation in Geneva to express related statements in favor of Taipei's efforts, sources said.

Michael Kao (高英茂), vice minister of Foreign Affairs, confirmed yesterday in Geneva that he had received a call from the Japanese delegation yesterday saying that if the US spoke in favor of Taiwan's bid, Japan would also take the floor to speak in favor of Taiwan.