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US backs limited health body role

Turning aside criticism by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), the US has urged the WHO to limit Taiwan's role in the global health system to a degree that Chen last month described as "meaningless."

On the eve of tomorrow's opening of the World Health Assembly's (WHA) annual meeting in Geneva, US Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Levitt sent a letter to WHO Director-General Margaret Chan (陳馮富珍) of Hong Kong, urging her to push for Taiwan's "meaningful participation" in WHO affairs, a position rejected by Chen as insufficient in comments to a visiting European parliamentary delegation at the end of last month.

Levitt's letter reflects existing US policy as expressed by the US State Department, but is likely to be disappointing to the Chen government in view of Taipei's current efforts to gain full membership in the WHO and the recent revelation that the administration of US President George W. Bush is officially opposed to a vote on observer status for Taiwan in the upcoming WHA meeting.

"Meaningful participation," as currently used, is a term that applies to the inclusion of Taiwan experts in a non-official capacity in such activities as the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network and the International Health Regulations adopted in 2005 governing notification of diseases and health emergencies of international concern.

In a recent report to Congress, the US State Department discussed efforts to secure Taiwan's participation in such WHO activities, but avoided any commitment to comply with congressional mandates to help secure Taiwan's status as an official observer to the WHA, to rally other countries to support the effort, or to sponsor a motion in favor of Taiwan's participation.

The Levitt letter and the department report also come at a time in which the Bush administration's exhaustive involvement in Iraq, the North Korean nuclear issue and Iran has prevented it from focusing on East Asian issues and has made it wary of actions that could alienate Beijing, which has fought strenuously to isolate Taiwan internationally.

The department report also said the US opposed Taiwan's entry into the WHO as a full member.

The report also said the US would not be not in favor of a vote on observer status if the vote was lopsided against Taiwan as expected.

Taiwan's de facto ambassador to Washington, Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), made a positive interpretation of the Levitt letter.

"I think the letter shows that there is still significant support from the American government concerning Taiwan's participation in the [WHO]," he said.

Bush continues to support observer status for Taiwan and participation by Taiwanese experts in WHO technical activities, Wu told the Taipei Times after a press conference on Friday.

In addition to observer status and membership, "meaningful participation is still part of what we want. So any progression on any of those issues is considered to be real progress," Wu said.

Meanwhile, officials of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Washington on Friday released a letter sent by seven US senators to the WHO's Chan urging full membership for Taiwan in the WHA.

Citing the global danger posed by avian flu, the senators said that"allowing Taiwan to participate in the WHO network will benefit both the people of Taiwan and the WHO. While a decision on Taiwan's full membership status will be made by member states, we encourage you to use your substantial influence to persuade states to support Taiwan's participation as a full member in the Assembly."

"Doing so will make a significant contribution to global health security," the letter said.

The letter's signatories included Trent Lott, former Senate majority leader and the newest co-chairman of the Senate's Taiwan Caucus, and former Democratic vice presidential contender, Joseph Lieberman.

The letter comes a week after 27 members of the US House of Representatives sent a letter to European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso urging the EU to publicly support Taiwan's observer status, saying that by doing so, the EU would "provide significant momentum to this proposal."

While Japan shares the US' support of observer status, the EU is "lagging a little behind," and does not support it, Wu said.

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