Taipei Times: What is your assessment of Taiwan's World Health Assembly (WHA) bid this year?
Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁): I've actually been away from Taiwan for a period of time now, visiting Germany and the Czech Republic before arriving in Geneva. This has been a chance for me as the department's director-general to speak with the heads of health and foreign affairs from other nations about Taiwan's health problems.
There are more and more opportunities now for bilateral talks with health officials from other countries, and in the process we are able to make some breakthroughs in cooperation and build friendship.
I think that the foundation for successful cooperation requires working on a number of different fronts. We can't just aim to participate in the World Health Organization (WHO) while neglecting to build good relationships.
[The WHO bid] this year was very tiring, but hard work has yielded results. We've seen some breakthroughs with regard to the WHA. For instance, the US and Japan stood up to support us. I had a good talk with [US Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy] Thompson.
And I know that if Japan or the US suffer any natural disasters or health emergencies, we can all help each other out. This is very important. For example, during the big earthquake in Hokkaido we sent an e-mail to see how we could help. And in the SARS case involving [military researcher] Lieutenant Colonel Chan, we gave them immediate updates on the situation.
This type of friendship facilitates interaction between nations. I was surprised when Tommy Thompson immediately agreed to a meeting with me before the WHA convened. In the past he had reservations, but this time he agreed immediately, not a problem. Before the assembly, we had a great chat, both of us joking and laughing. This shows that friendship between our two nations has been established.
In his letter [to WHO Director-General Lee Jong-wook], Thompson wrote that Taiwan was a model in the fight against SARS. This put Taiwan in a good light and made a good impression on others. We were honest and transparent. So, [Thompson] knows, these are good people. And how can you not help good people?
This year at the WHA, one feeling I had was that at least we are honest and uphold principles of justice and humanity, and that these universal values will prevail in the assembly. You can see everyone agonizing over the exclusion of Taiwan, knowing it is incompatible with humanitarian values. So Japan, the EU, the US and Canada, all these powerful countries, felt the pressure of Taiwan's inability to participate in the WHO.
But in terms of the vote, the results were not as good as I anticipated. This shows that China has a very itchy trigger finger. As soon as talk of a vote was brought up, China knocked on doors all across Europe.
And when the EU said that it would vote against Taiwan, the EU said that it would make a statement afterwards. This goes to show that the EU is not very comfortable [with Taiwan's situation].
So Chinese aggression is one reason for the small number of votes we received this time. Still, Israel and the Philippines abstained. And some nations expressed their opinion by being absent during the vote.
If China really cares about the health of 23 million people, then they need to realize that inclusion of Taiwan is not a political maneuver on our part.
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