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MOFA to China: let us join the WHO

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged China to stop hindering Taiwan's effort to participate in the World Health Assembly (WHA), two weeks ahead of the assembly's annual meeting.

The nation is making its ninth bid for observer status at the WHA, the highest decision-making body of the World Health Organization (WHO).

Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Michael Kau (高英茂), who just returned from a trip lobbying for European countries' support for Taiwan's bid, called a press conference to rebut China's claim that it wanted to help Taiwan join the WHO this year.

Citing several senior Chinese officials' public statements about Beijing's willingness to help Taiwan take part in WHO conferences, Kau said that China would only allow Taiwan to participate in WHO activities if it acknowledged that it was part of China.

According to Kau, China told the WHO Secretariat that Taiwanese officials could join the Chinese delegation to the WHA and suggested that the WHO pass its information to Taiwan through Beijing.

The WHO Secretariat passed China's message to Taiwan, Kau said. The secretariat, he added, "respects opinions of its member states" and holds a neutral stance on Taiwan's bid to join the health body.

China's proposal is "unacceptable" because Taiwan is a sovereign country, Kau said.

"We want direct channels of communication with the WHO," he noted.

There are discrepancies between China's public remarks on helping Taiwan participate in the WHO and its diplomatic actions in carrying out the proposal, Kau said.

On the diplomatic level, he said, China has not shown any sign of relenting in its opposition to Taiwan's bid for observer status in the health body, despite its seemingly conciliatory remarks.

But the Chinese officials' remarks about helping Taiwan join the WHO have nonetheless raised expectations in Taiwan of entering the body this year.

"The greater the expectations, the deeper the disappointment. If China fails to make good on its proposal, it will hurt the feelings of the Taiwanese people," the official said.

The ministry issued a statement yesterday calling for WHO Director-General Lee Jong-wook to "positively help solve the problem of Taiwan's participation in the International Health Regulations and the WHO."

The regulations are the WHO's global legal framework for infectious disease control. Revision of the regulations began last year, and the ministry has been lobbying for an amendment to include Taiwan in the regulations.

To avoid the political issue of Taiwan's sovereignty, the ministry might even choose to send this year's application for observer status under the title "Center for Disease Control, Taiwan," Kau said.

The ministry hopes the adoption of the amended regulations at the assembly could grant Taiwan the opportunity to be included in WHO's disease control programs, the official said.

Taiwan's disease center could serve as a "focal point" in the WHO's international disease-control framework, Kau said.

"If so, Taiwan will no longer be a gap in the international framework for infectious disease control," he added.

The meeting of the WHA will be held in Geneva from May 16 to 25.
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