Taiwan was not invited to a virtual meeting of the World Health Assembly (WHA) this week, which is expected to focus on the COVID-19 pandemic, due to “obstruction” from China, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said late on Sunday night, expressing its displeasure.
After meeting briefly in May with an abridged agenda, the WHO’s decisionmaking body resumed yesterday.
“The ministry expresses strong regret and dissatisfaction at China’s obstruction of Taiwan participating in the WHO and the WHO’s continuing to neglect the health and human rights of Taiwan’s 23.5 million people,” the ministry said.
The WHO’s refusal to invite Taiwan based on political considerations makes a mockery of the body’s “health for all” claim, it said.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said in a Facebook post yesterday that the WHO would miss out on an opportunity uniting the world against the pandemic and trumpet its idea of “health for all” if it allows obstruction from China to exclude Taiwan’s participation.
Despite Chinese obstruction and threats, Taiwan will continue to strive for chances to prove that “Taiwan can help,” she added.
Several foreign missions in Taipei — including the American Institute in Taiwan, the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association’s Taipei office and the Australian Office Taipei — also voiced their support for Taiwan’s WHA participation on their official Facebook pages, with the hashtag “#HealthHasNoBorders” in their posts.
The ministry said that Taiwan would continue to seek full participation in all WHO meetings, mechanisms and related activities, backed by strong international support for its inclusion.
Among those sources of support was the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association in New York, which wrote to the WHO on Thursday calling for Taiwan’s inclusion.
“We, Chinese Americans, strongly encourage WHO to reinstate the invitation for Taiwan to participate at the WHA,” the association said in the letter that was signed by its president, Justin Yu (于金山), and addressed to WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus.
“Taiwan is a critical piece in the global health conversation regarding COVID-19,” the letter said. “Because of their success in containing the virus and preventing large amounts of deaths, their knowledge is absolutely necessary and should not be excluded from being shared.”
It “makes no logical sense at this time” to exclude Taiwan from the global health body, and that international politics should not overshadow over the life of any human being, it said.
Chinese Ambassador to the UN Chen Xu (陳旭) yesterday said that proposals to allow Taiwan’s participation were “illegal and invalid.”
Additional reporting by Lu Yi-hsuan and Reuters
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