A civic group has established a Web site that urges people to petition the WHO to invite Taiwan to next month’s World Health Assembly (WHA).
The Web site, titled Lai-Phau-Te (狸長辦公室), launched its “one person, one letter, support Taiwan to attend the 2019 WHA” campaign last week, urging people to write letters or e-mails to the WHO to express the desire of Taiwanese that the nation be officially invited to the meeting in Geneva, Switzerland.
It provides a template for people to use directly or modify.
Photo provided by Lai-Phau-Te
“Healthcare is for all humankind, it is universal. It is beyond the scope of race, religion, politics and economics,” the proposed petition says. “We also believe that our experience in medical and hygiene development is valuable to the global community. The WHA needs Taiwan and Taiwan needs the WHA to further contribute to global health.”
Taiwan contained the SARS outbreak in 2003, so denying it participation at the WHA creates a weak link in global disease prevention, it says.
Taiwan attended the WHA as an observer from 2009 to 2016, when then-president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was pursuing a conciliatory policy toward China, but it did not receive an invitation in the past two years due to Chinese pressure after President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) of the Democratic Progressive Party took office in May 2016.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs this month said that it was unlikely Taiwan would be invited this year, while the Chinese-language Apple Daily last month reported that WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said there would be no invitation without a “cross-strait understanding.”
Separately, a group of young Taiwanese formed the Taiwan Association for Global Health Diplomacy and launched a crowdfunding campaign called Global Health Diplomacy.
The group aims to raise NT$500,000 to help its members — who it said were professionals in healthcare, marketing, design, engineering, technology and other areas — visit Geneva during the WHA meeting to promote Taiwan’s participation using the nation’s record in telemedicine technology, a healthcare white paper written by medical practitioners.
They would also seek to communicate with and gain support from non-governmental organizations and government officials, the group said.
The campaign had raised 24 percent of its goal as of yesterday evening and is to end on May 9.
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