Once again, the World Health Organization (WHO)has voted to reject a proposal to allow Taiwan into the organization. The WHO's Constitution says in its preamble, "The enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition."
How could an organization whose main objective is supposed to be "health for all" find any justification in excluding Taiwan for five years in a row despite annual requests for entry? How could the WHO completely ignore the rights of Taiwan's 23 million people to basic health? How could the WHO's lofty objectives be seen as anything but hollow rhetoric in the light of such an act?
The vectors of disease know no boundaries, neither should the prevention of diseases. For the international community, to shut Taiwan out of the WHO is to leave a major loophole in the global monitoring of contagious diseases. Such a loophole leaves the people of Taiwan vulnerable to the threat of serious diseases -- such as the Ebola virus and the emergence of drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis. During the enterovirus outbreak in 1998, disease control work was hindered by the inadequacy of virus testing resources -- due to the lack of contact with the WHO. The deaths of several children during the outbreak, perhaps, could have been prevented. Similarly, the damage from foot-and-mouth epidemics that have ravaged Taiwan's pig farms could have been mitigated.
An act that causes such extensive harm -- in total contravention of human welfare -- is simply an affront to basic standards of human decency. And the harm works both ways. With Taiwan excluded from the WHO, the international health community is unable to share the country's recent achievements in health work -- such as its experience in the promotion of family planning, the prevention of hepatitis B, the elimination of malaria and polio, and the implementation of its National Health Insurance program. These resources will have to remain in the freezer, due to political interference.
Taiwan is not asking for much from the WHO. Over the past five years, the country has only hoped to enter the organization as an observer -- joining the ranks of the Holy See, the Palestine Authority, the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (better known as the Hospitallers of St John of St John's ambulance fame) and the International Committee of the Red Cross. Obviously, the observer status was created to avoid unnecessary disputes over sovereignty issues. That would seem to make Taiwan a prime candidate for such status. In terms of population and land mass, Taiwan far exceeds Vatican City's 44 hectares.
Of course, the Beijing regime, which masterminded this puerile act, is not known for its humanity, sense of fairness or respect for human rights. Beijing's fictitious claim that "the PRC already represents Taiwan within the WHO," is anything but the truth. Since its inception in 1949, the PRC has never ruled Taiwan for a single day. Much less has the Beijing government provided any meaningful help to Taiwan during epidemic outbreaks and disasters. This makes Beijing's claims of "brotherhood" with the people of Taiwan even more ludicrous.
But the biggest outrage so far has got to be the fact that none of Taiwan's numerous Quisling politicians, who have gone on numerous pilgrimages to Beijing, have come out to speak up on Taiwan's behalf.
Despite being shot down for the fifth time, Taiwan has to continue to fight for its rights. Not to do so would be a sad admission that justice really is unattainable in the international community.
As Taiwan’s domestic political crisis deepens, the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) have proposed gutting the country’s national spending, with steep cuts to the critical foreign and defense ministries. While the blue-white coalition alleges that it is merely responding to voters’ concerns about corruption and mismanagement, of which there certainly has been plenty under Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and KMT-led governments, the rationales for their proposed spending cuts lay bare the incoherent foreign policy of the KMT-led coalition. Introduced on the eve of US President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the KMT’s proposed budget is a terrible opening
To The Honorable Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜): We would like to extend our sincerest regards to you for representing Taiwan at the inauguration of US President Donald Trump on Monday. The Taiwanese-American community was delighted to see that Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan speaker not only received an invitation to attend the event, but successfully made the trip to the US. We sincerely hope that you took this rare opportunity to share Taiwan’s achievements in freedom, democracy and economic development with delegations from other countries. In recent years, Taiwan’s economic growth and world-leading technology industry have been a source of pride for Taiwanese-Americans.
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