Taiwan should be allowed to join the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an irreplaceable contributor to global health and disease prevention efforts, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday.
He made the comment at a news conference in Taipei, hours before a Taiwanese delegation was to depart for Geneva, Switzerland, seeking to meet with foreign representatives for a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the WHA, the WHO’s annual decisionmaking meeting, which would be held from Monday next week to May 27.
As of yesterday, Taiwan had yet to receive an invitation.
Photo: Laio Chen-hui, Taipei Times
Taiwan has much to offer to the international community’s efforts to protect the world’s collective health, and its exclusion from the WHA has been a loss to all nations, Lin said.
The nation’s healthcare system covers 99 percent of the population and has a proven record in providing for disadvantaged people and ethnic minorities, he said, adding that it could benefit the WHA’s Global Plan of Action for Health of Indigenous Peoples.
China has for years distorted UN Resolution 2758 to pressure the WHA into excluding Taiwan from its proceedings, but Taiwan’s democratically elected government should be the sole representative of its people, Lin said.
The resolution applies only to the representation of China in the UN, not Taiwan’s, and many have challenged the falsehoods perpetuated by Beijing’s legal and cognitive warfare, he said.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus should heed the call of professionalism and political neutrality, and reject Beijing’s meddling, Lin said, adding the global common good should take precedence over other concerns.
Taiwan’s key role in global chip supply chains makes it a crucial partner in any worldwide public health initiative, he said, citing the nation’s participation in the Global Cooperation and Training Framework alongside Japan, Australia, Canada and other countries.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chiu Tai-yuan (邱泰源) said that Taiwan’s exclusion from the WHA is an injustice to the nation and robs the world of the benefits it could have obtained from one of the foremost practitioners of disease prevention and public health.
The government will not give up the fight for the Taiwanese whose universal right to health must not be denied, he said.
Asked about Washington’s pullout from the WHO, Lin said that the US’ support for Taiwan remains unchanged, as its membership in the organization is valid until the end of the year.
In February, the US envoy to the WHO again expressed Washington’s support for Taipei’s participation in the organization and criticized Beijing’s mischaracterization of the UN resolution, he said.
The US remains capable of wielding influence outside the WHO and Taiwan would be the first to join any alternative global health framework Washington creates, Lin said.
Taiwan can share information about health matters and be involved in deliberations on global health policy without being part of the WHO, he added.
Health is a human right and the government will not give that up with or without being invited to attend the assembly, Lin said.
Chiu said Taiwan’s delegation would host a forum on the nation’s experience in universal health coverage and in applying artificial intelligence to healthcare, adding that Japan, Thailand, the US, the UK, Germany and Switzerland would attend the event.
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