Taiwan separatists up to their tricks again

Showing that they will willingly break the bounds of decency to pursue their separatist agenda, the secessionist-minded forces in Taiwan are once again trying to exploit the novel coronavirus outbreak and the World Health Assembly to advance their cause.

Speaking to foreign reporters in Taipei on Wednesday, Chen Shih-chung, the island’s health chief, claimed Taiwan was getting “second-hand information” because it did not have direct access to the World Health Organization.

Being part of China, Taiwan is not eligible to be an independent member of the WHO, as that is the preserve of sovereign states. However, there is no barrier to technical cooperation between Taiwan and the world health body, and its health specialists can still attend relevant technical exchanges under the special arrangements agreed between Beijing and the United Nations agency.

But with this year’s World Health Assembly on the horizon — scheduled to be held as a virtual meeting on May 18 — Taiwan is once again making a fuss to create the impression that it is somehow being denied a due right, in total disregard of the fact that its qualification to participate in the assembly is not even open to debate.

From 2009 to 2016, the Chinese government made special arrangements for Taiwan to attend the World Health Assembly as an observer in the name of “Chinese Taipei,” in accordance with the “1992 Consensus” reached between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan.

But Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party has refused to recognize the one-China principle, which undermined the political basis of Taiwan’s participation in the WHO’s annual conference, and thus it single-handedly shut the door on the island’s participation in the World Health Assembly.

In 2017, a proposal to discuss the invitation of China’s Taiwan to the WHO’s annual assembly was rejected. Yet once again, the Tsai Ing-wen administration is trying to use the World Health Assembly to create the impression that there is “one China and one Taiwan” on the world stage. And once again its bid to sabotage international recognition of the one-China principle will not succeed.

The Taiwan authorities should stop telling the lie that Taiwan is excluded from the WHO, and stop claiming that this creates a dangerous gap in the global fight against the pandemic.

The Chinese mainland has maintained smooth communication on information and experience sharing with the Taiwanese side through channels stipulated by the International Health Regulations ever since the novel coronavirus pandemic started.

Political forces in Taiwan, the DPP in particular, should know that their WHO tricks will be fruitless — the world will not be hoodwinked by their unscrupulous political tricks.