The 77th World Health Assembly will be held in Geneva, on May 27–June 1 this year. The theme of this year is All for Health, Health for All. Regrettably, Taiwan remains the WHA’s missing link.
In analyzing global health politics, it is evident that the challenges are vast and complex. Overcoming them demands unified, unbiased efforts, transcending political or territorial divides.
Granting Taiwan observer status in WHA will not only serve the vulnerable with measurable impact for 23.9 million inhabitants but also provide the World Health Organization (WHO), which holds the WHA, with crucial data on global health issues.
Taiwan has sought to participate as an observer in forums such as the WHA, but China has argued that under UN Resolution 2758, Taiwan is part of China and cannot be a separate UN member.
However, the resolution did not preclude Taiwan’s meaningful participation in the UN system or in any other multilateral forum.
Speaking at a seminar held by the German Marshall Fund, US Deputy Assistant Secretary for China and Taiwan Mark Lambert called for support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in the international community at a time when China is increasingly misusing Resolution 2758.
Acute health emergencies affect millions of people around the world each year and keeping the world safe and protecting the vulnerable are top priorities for the WHA. The WHO works with countries and partners to prepare for, prevent, detect and respond to disease outbreaks and other health emergencies.
Taiwan is a highly capable, engaged and responsible member of the global health community. Taiwan should leverage the international support it received during the COVID-19 pandemic and continue to mobilize strong opposition to and clarification of Resolution 2758 in Taiwan’s meaningful participation and observership at the WHA.
The Biden administration’s immediate priority is to strongly counter and clarify Resolution 2758, as Taiwan is a very capable health partner. The exclusion of Taiwan has raised concerns over the intersection of geopolitics and global health imperatives. Let Taiwan join the 77th session of the World Health Assembly.
Kent Wang is advisory commissioner for the Overseas Community Affairs Council, Republic of China (Taiwan) in the US.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has long been expansionist and contemptuous of international law. Under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), the CCP regime has become more despotic, coercive and punitive. As part of its strategy to annex Taiwan, Beijing has sought to erase the island democracy’s international identity by bribing countries to sever diplomatic ties with Taipei. One by one, China has peeled away Taiwan’s remaining diplomatic partners, leaving just 12 countries (mostly small developing states) and the Vatican recognizing Taiwan as a sovereign nation. Taiwan’s formal international space has shrunk dramatically. Yet even as Beijing has scored diplomatic successes, its overreach
After more than a year of review, the National Security Bureau on Monday said it has completed a sweeping declassification of political archives from the Martial Law period, transferring the full collection to the National Archives Administration under the National Development Council. The move marks another significant step in Taiwan’s long journey toward transitional justice. The newly opened files span the architecture of authoritarian control: internal security and loyalty investigations, intelligence and counterintelligence operations, exit and entry controls, overseas surveillance of Taiwan independence activists, and case materials related to sedition and rebellion charges. For academics of Taiwan’s White Terror era —
On Feb. 7, the New York Times ran a column by Nicholas Kristof (“What if the valedictorians were America’s cool kids?”) that blindly and lavishly praised education in Taiwan and in Asia more broadly. We are used to this kind of Orientalist admiration for what is, at the end of the day, paradoxically very Anglo-centered. They could have praised Europeans for valuing education, too, but one rarely sees an American praising Europe, right? It immediately made me think of something I have observed. If Taiwanese education looks so wonderful through the eyes of the archetypal expat, gazing from an ivory tower, how
After 37 US lawmakers wrote to express concern over legislators’ stalling of critical budgets, Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) pledged to make the Executive Yuan’s proposed NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.7 billion) special defense budget a top priority for legislative review. On Tuesday, it was finally listed on the legislator’s plenary agenda for Friday next week. The special defense budget was proposed by President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration in November last year to enhance the nation’s defense capabilities against external threats from China. However, the legislature, dominated by the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), repeatedly blocked its review. The
RSS