A Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) official will lodge a protest in person against the WHO on Tuesday for labeling Taiwan a province of China in recent correspondence, Minister of Foreign Affairs Francisco Ou (歐鴻鍊) said yesterday.
“We absolutely cannot accept the term ‘Taiwan, China.’ We have already lodged a written protest to the WHO and our representative to Geneva will confront the WHO in person on the 30th,” Ou said at the Legislative Yuan.
Ou said Taiwan will demand that the WHO contact Taiwan directly on any health-related news or when replying to enquiries.
The Department of Health (DOH) last week notified the WHO that Taiwan had exported a batch of dairy products to Hong Kong that may have been made with toxic milk powder from China.
The WHO, in its reply, referred to Taiwan as “Taiwan, China,” and instead of addressing the DOH as the sole recipient of the reply, the health watchdog sent the official response to China and only sent a copy to Taiwan.
The move has sparked anger in Taiwan. Politicians across party lines are urging the government to confront the WHO to set the record straight.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator and former foreign minister John Chiang (蔣孝嚴) named WHO Director-General Margaret Chan (陳馮富珍) of Hong Kong as the major stumbling block behind Taiwan’s continual exclusion.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) panned the “deliberate error” as evidence that the so-called “diplomatic truce” initiated by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) with Beijing has not been reciprocated and that the administration was giving its sovereignty away on a silver platter.
“Taiwan, in all good faith, reported its possible export of tainted products to China to the WHO,” DPP legislator Tsai Huang-lang (蔡煌瑯) said, “but our sincerity was reciprocated with stoneheartedness.”
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