President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday dismissed the "meaningful participation" campaign to allow Taiwan to participate in WHO activities in a non-official capacity as "meaningless," and said that using the name "Taiwan" to apply for full membership in the health body had nothing to do with changing the country's name.
Chen said that there were many problems with the "meaningful participation" approach.
EU delegation
The president made the comments while addressing a delegation led by George Jarzembowski, president of the European Parliament's Taiwan Council, at the Presidential Office yesterday morning.
Chen told the delegation that the government would adopt a three-pronged approach this year in its 11th bid to join the WHO: applying for WHA observer status; continuing the campaign to allow Taiwan to participate in WHO activities; and sending a letter to WHO Director-General Margaret Chan (陳馮富珍) seeking membership under the name "Taiwan."
The government has previously applied to become an observer at the WHA as a "health entity" -- a term used to skirt the sensitive issue of sovereignty -- in a bid to defuse China's opposition to Taiwan's participation.
The WHO chief has told CNN in an interview that the organization's 193 member states "hold on very strongly to the `one China' principle."
The US State Department recently reiterated its opposition to full membership for Taiwan in the WHO.
Despite China's argument that Taiwan is not eligible for WHO membership under the name "Taiwan" because it is not a country, Chen yesterday said that Taiwan was unquestionably a sovereign state because it had diplomatic relations with 23 WHO member states and one observer.
`Most beautiful'
Chen also urged the European Parliament to keep up its support for the country's WHO bid, because "Taiwan" was the best and "most beautiful" name for the country.
Citing the example of the former East Germany, Chen said that East Germany ran into the same problem in 1968 when it applied to become a full member of the WHO. Since the WHO could not unilaterally decide whether East Germany was a sovereign state, they left the matter to its member states. The health body invited East Germany as an observer in 1972 and agreed to let it join the organization as a full member in 1973.
He also criticized a memorandum of understanding signed between China and the WHO in May 2005 as a scheme aimed at impinging on Taiwan's sovereignty.
The memorandum states that all WHO-related meetings and activities in which Taiwan wished to participate had to be approved by Beijing and that Taiwanese experts and officials could only participate in such events in their individual capacity.
It also stipulates that delegates must not hold public positions more senior than that of department director and that the country had to be referred to as "Taiwan, China" in all documents.
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