Taiwan Urges WHO to Defy China, Let It Join Key Annual Meeting

(Bloomberg) --

Taiwan urged the World Health Organization to allow it to rejoin a key global health assembly later this month despite objections from China, as Taipei pushes for more inclusion in international bodies.

Taiwan needs a seat at the WHO's annual decision-making meeting, the World Health Assembly, on May 18 to allow it access to firsthand information about the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, health minister Chen Shih-chung said at a briefing in Taipei Wednesday.

“The WHO continues to exclude Taiwan's participation only because of political pressure from China, ignoring the health and welfare of people around the world,” Chen said. “We look forward to being allowed to participate in this assembly,” he added. “We believe the WHO and the WHA should assume the mantel of world health leaders, and only when they do that will the world progress.”

Taiwan's successful handling of the outbreak -- and rising global concern about China's initial response to it -- has led to a groundswell of support for the island's participation in this month's assembly. The U.S. has publicly backed Taiwan's inclusion and, according to a Fox News report is seeking support from major European nations too.

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Earlier this week, a WHO lawyer said the organization was unable to agree to Taiwan's request for participation as the United Nations had decided in 1971 that Beijing was the sole representative of China, including Taiwan. China sees the island as a province.

“Things are always changing,” Chen said. “Don't say we can't change a decision made 49 years ago. As long as it is reasonable, we can change any decision we've made in recent years.”

Beijing granted Taiwan a brief period of access to WHA meetings as an observer between 2009 and 2016 after then-President Ma Ying-jeou, who accepted the negotiating framework that both sides were part of “one China.”

But that arrangement came to an end when current president Tsai Ing-wen came into power and refused to accept the “one-China” premise, stating instead that the island was a sovereign, independent nation. Beijing subsequently withdrew its permission for Taiwan's participation in the meetings.

China -- which has repeated its support for the WHO in recent weeks even as U.S. President Donald Trump said he would halt its funding -- sees the attempts by Tsai's ruling Democratic Progressive Party to join the WHA as a separatist act.

China's foreign ministry on Wednesday said the DPP had been “making political manipulations under the pretext of the pandemic to hype up Taiwan's participation in the WHO and its annual assembly.”

“Their real intention is to seek independence and we firmly oppose that. Their attempt will never succeed,” ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters in Beijing. “Based on the ‘one China' principle, the central government of China has already made proper arrangements on the Taiwan region's participation in global health affairs.”

Larger Role

The latest request by Taipei comes weeks after it demanded an apology for comments by the WHO's Ethiopian director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, after he accused Taiwan of being behind a racist campaign against him and Africans in general. While Taiwanese foreign minister Joseph Wu has been critical of the WHO's handling of the pandemic and its exclusion of Taiwan, it was unclear what campaign of racist attacks Tedros was referring to.

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Through a combination of early health screening for arrivals, thorough testing and contact tracing, and widespread medical mask usage, Taiwan has managed to limit the spread of Covid-19. Health officials have confirmed just 439 cases since the outbreak began, with no new domestic infections for the past 24 days.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar discussed giving Taiwan a bigger role in the global fight against the coronavirus in a telephone call with Chen last week, a rare Cabinet-level meeting between the two governments. Taipei has also won over friends by donating millions of surgical masks to U.S., Europe, Southeast Asia and beyond.

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While Taiwan's government was a founding member of the UN, the People's Republic of China took its seat in the body -- and all related organizations, such as the WHO -- in 1971.

When asked if there was any possibility of an agreement between Beijing and Taipei that would allow Taiwan to participate in this month's WHA, Chen, the Taiwanese health minister, said he'd be willing to talk.

“Reaching a consensus with China would be fine but the point is that Taiwan cannot be downgraded,” he said. “People need to maintain their dignity and it's the same for countries too. We welcome any country that's willing to sit down with us to reach a consensus on how to help the world.”