The Ministry of Foreign Affairs lashed out at China yesterday for barring Taiwan from joining the World Health Organization (WHO) at a time when bird flu is an international threat.
"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemns China for [using] its political clout to block a proposal concerning Taiwans observer status" at the World Health Assembly (WHA), the WHO's annual forum, the ministry said.
"China's move ... also shows the hypocrisy of its policy toward Taiwan," the ministry said in a statement.
"Why make a very visible offer of goodwill toward Taiwan with two lovely pandas, yet stifle the basic health rights of the 23 million people of Taiwan?" it added, referring to Beijing's offer of a pair of pandas to Taiwan.
The ministry said China was barring Taipei's bid at a time when "global disease-prevention cooperation is desperately needed" to contain the spread of bird flu.
The virus has killed more than 80 people since 2003, mostly in Asia.
The proposal, blocked at the WHO Executive Board meetings in Geneva earlier this week, was a request to give Taiwan observer status for the May session of the WHA.
The World Health Assembly is the highest decision-making body of the WHO, whose 192 member countries meet once a year to agree on policies and appoint a director-general.
Despite the setback, Taiwan vowed to continue pressing for WHA participation, while Belize said it would seek other opportunities to re-submit the proposal. Since 1997, Taipei's annual attempts to gain observer status in different international agencies have been opposed by Beijing.
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