Taiwan was not invited to the annual World Health Assembly (WHA) — the decisionmaking body of the WHO — for the ninth consecutive year, and a proposal by allies to invite the nation was rejected on Monday last week due to China’s objection.
Taiwan has been trying to join the WHO since 1997, and it only attended WHA sessions as an observer from 2009 to 2016 with the designation of “Chinese Taipei,” during the administration of then-president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), who signed several controversial agreements with China. Relations between Beijing and Taipei were warmer at the time.
However, since former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) took office in 2016, China has taken a hard-line approach in poaching Taiwan’s diplomatic allies and blocking the nation’s international participation.
Following consistent practices from previous years, the government this year sent a WHA action team led by health officials to Geneva, Switzerland, to half protest the WHO Secretariat, half campaign for international support. Efforts to increase the nation’s international recognition and visibility also included diplomats, civic groups and overseas Taiwanese holding events on the sidelines of the assembly.
On Monday last week, the WHA’s first day, the representative offices in Taiwan of eight nations — Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Japan, Lithuania and the UK — issued a joint statement to reiterate their support for Taiwan’s meaningful engagement with the WHO and participation as an observer at the WHA.
At the assembly, 11 of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies and 15 like-minded countries directly or indirectly voiced support for the nation’s participation.
Belize and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines represented allies and proposed to include Taiwan in this year’s WHA, arguing that China’s interpretation of UN Resolution 2758 and WHA Resolution 25.1 are being misused, as they do not mention Taiwan, and “do not justify the exclusion of Taiwan, nor do they grant China the right to represent the Taiwanese people,” but the proposal was rejected.
Representatives of Germany, France, Japan and New Zealand, as well as allies Haiti and the Marshall Islands, voiced their backing for Taiwan’s participation during their opening remarks. The WHA action team attended more than 40 bilateral meetings, forums and news conferences, and Taiwanese civic groups held exhibitions, forums and rallies in Geneva to demonstrate the nation’s healthcare achievements and determination to contribute to global health.
Under China’s intensifying pressure on Taiwan, the WHA bid has always been a difficult challenge for the nation, but the government has not given up throughout the years.
The persistent efforts by the government and civic groups have over the past few years led to more countries and medical organizations voicing support for Taiwan’s international participation, with some even challenging China’s misuse of UN Resolution 2758.
However, the US’ withdrawal from the WHO, effective from January next year, and its call to create a global health cooperation network outside the WHO, might present new challenges for Taiwan.
Members of civic groups have expressed different opinions, with some seeing the US’ withdrawal as a positive opportunity for the WHO to reorganize, while some speculate that China might step in to fill the gap and make it even more difficult for Taiwan to join.
President William Lai (賴清德) on Saturday said Taiwan would continue its efforts to join the WHO, despite facing various challenges and the US’ withdrawal. With the impacts unclear, the government should keep a closer eye on the changes in the coming months, as it might need to readjust and prepare new strategies for next year’s WHA bid.
In the US’ National Security Strategy (NSS) report released last month, US President Donald Trump offered his interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine. The “Trump Corollary,” presented on page 15, is a distinctly aggressive rebranding of the more than 200-year-old foreign policy position. Beyond reasserting the sovereignty of the western hemisphere against foreign intervention, the document centers on energy and strategic assets, and attempts to redraw the map of the geopolitical landscape more broadly. It is clear that Trump no longer sees the western hemisphere as a peaceful backyard, but rather as the frontier of a new Cold War. In particular,
When it became clear that the world was entering a new era with a radical change in the US’ global stance in US President Donald Trump’s second term, many in Taiwan were concerned about what this meant for the nation’s defense against China. Instability and disruption are dangerous. Chaos introduces unknowns. There was a sense that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) might have a point with its tendency not to trust the US. The world order is certainly changing, but concerns about the implications for Taiwan of this disruption left many blind to how the same forces might also weaken
As the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) races toward its 2027 modernization goals, most analysts fixate on ship counts, missile ranges and artificial intelligence. Those metrics matter — but they obscure a deeper vulnerability. The true future of the PLA, and by extension Taiwan’s security, might hinge less on hardware than on whether the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) can preserve ideological loyalty inside its own armed forces. Iran’s 1979 revolution demonstrated how even a technologically advanced military can collapse when the social environment surrounding it shifts. That lesson has renewed relevance as fresh unrest shakes Iran today — and it should
As the new year dawns, Taiwan faces a range of external uncertainties that could impact the safety and prosperity of its people and reverberate in its politics. Here are a few key questions that could spill over into Taiwan in the year ahead. WILL THE AI BUBBLE POP? The global AI boom supported Taiwan’s significant economic expansion in 2025. Taiwan’s economy grew over 7 percent and set records for exports, imports, and trade surplus. There is a brewing debate among investors about whether the AI boom will carry forward into 2026. Skeptics warn that AI-led global equity markets are overvalued and overleveraged
RSS