Taiwan appeals for access to WHO meeting

GENEVA: Taiwan launched a global appeal yesterday to be granted access to the World Health Organisation’s main annual meeting, after tensions with China led to its exclusion for a second straight year.

Last year was the first time in eight years that Taiwan was not granted access to the World Health Assembly (WHA), which opened its 71st edition in Geneva yesterday.

“We are here to plead for the support of all nations and anyone who cares about improving global health to rally for Taiwan’s formal participation in the World Health Assembly,” Taiwan’s health and welfare minister Chen Shih-Chung said.

Speaking at a Geneva hotel less than 1km away from the UN’s European headquarters, as the WHA was set to open, Chen said keeping Taiwan out “violates the fundamental principles of the WHO.”

WHO has said it was not in a position to invite Taiwan until a “cross-straits understanding” with Beijing was restored.

Chen declined to answer directly when asked if he wanted WHO to circumvent Beijing and give Taiwan a special invitation.

But he insisted that excluding Taiwan was not just a blow to 23 million Taiwanese but could also hurt “tens, perhaps hundreds of millions of global citizens”, given the island’s significant technical and financial contribution to global health.

People “who don’t care about politics or diplomatic squabble ... do not deserve to be pawns in a game with such serious stakes”, the minister told reporters.

China’s foreign ministry has said that the island was only able to attend the WHA from 2009 to 2016 because the previous Taiwan government had a consensus with Beijing that there is only “one China”.

While the island’s former administration touted the agreement as enabling crossstraits relations to flourish without compromising Taiwan’s sovereignty, Beijing saw it as meaning Taiwan and the mainland are part of a single China.

President Tsai Ing-wen, who took power in May 2016, and her independenceleaning Democratic Progressive Party have refused to acknowledge the principle, which Beijing sees as the bedrock for relations. – AFP