That’s how China does it

You reported that the White House had criticised China’s attempt to force foreign airlines to change how they refer to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau (US blasts China over Orwellian nonsense, May 6). This comes as no surprise to anyone who is familiar with how China operates.

China has for many years tried to discredit Taiwan’s sovereignty, despite the fact that China does not, nor has it ever, had any legitimate rule over the island. The existence of the Republic of China (Taiwan) is undeniable. Whether from a historical, geographical or political perspective, Taiwan and its 23-million inhabitants have never been part of the People’s Republic of China.

China continues to use political manipulation to block Taiwan from various international organisations such as the UN and World Health Organisation.

SA will have seen from the recent listeriosis outbreak that disease knows no borders and to combat future disease outbreaks all members of the international community need to put aside political differences and work together.

Taiwan has steadily contributed to enhancing regional and global disease prevention networks and dedicated itself to assisting other countries in overcoming healthcare challenges to jointly realise the World Health Organisation’s vision that health is a fundamental human right.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said recently that “China’s efforts to export its censorship and political correctness to Americans and the rest of the free world will be resisted”. I hope this view will be adopted by the international organisations Taiwan wishes to join.

YY Hsu

Taipei liaison office