Political considerations should not get in the way of Taiwan's bid to join the World Health Organization (WHO), a leading Japanese daily said in an editorial yesterday.
"Another early victim of SARS [severe acute respiratory syndrome] was Taiwan, which was initially unable to obtain any information about the disease from the WHO because it is not a member nation -- chiefly because of objections from China," the Mainichi Yomiuri Shimbun said in its editorial entitled "Beijing at fault over SARS."
"Taiwan is asking the WHO for permission to join as an observer. The world health watchdog should allow it to do so as well as make an all-out effort to establish an international system to prevent the virus from spreading further," the editorial said.
"Political considerations have no place in the scheme of things when it comes to mounting a counteroffensive against a killer disease," the editorial said.
Since 1997, Taiwan has tried to join the World Health Assembly (WHA) -- the WHO's top decision-making body -- as an observer.
Last year, Taipei for the first time tried to join the WHA as a "health entity" in an attempt to dilute the sovereignty issue.
The editorial echoed other critics who have lambasted China's cover-up of the true number of its SARS cases since the first case surfaced in Guangdong Province last November.
"How can the Chinese government excuse itself for letting severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, spread around the world?" the editorial said.
The editorial came two days after Beijing released updated figures on its SARS cases that were almost nine times higher than previously reported.
"If the Chinese government thought its deception would minimize the possibility of damage to its trade and tourism industries, it was totally mistaken," the editorial said.
The Times of London also criticized Beijing's belated response to the spread of SARS with an editorial on Monday entitled "China's Chernobyl." The Times said China's "cover-up has been so much a part of the bureaucratic response to crises that ordinary officials have not known how to respond to the unprecedented pressure created by SARS."
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