Taiwanese health held hostage
On the second day of my internship in Thailand, I attended a panel discussion on how the Thai government and its regional peers are dealing with the coronavirus. As one of the panelists — the World Health Organization (WHO) representative in Thailand — reiterated the UN agency’s suggestions about helping people avoid infection and reassured the audience that the world has been collaborating closely on effective treatments, I felt a disturbing mixture of emotions.
The “world” in his account didn’t include where I’m from, and the lives of 23 million people are once again being compromised.
As a Taiwanese, I am used to seeing Taiwan getting excluded on international occasions. The political isolation occurs not only when we manage to participate in global organisations and international trading cooperation, but also during outbreaks of epidemics or pandemics.
Looking back to 17 years ago, the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) outbreak made Taiwanese society suffer dearly. In the beginning, the Chinese government kept crucial information about the epidemic hidden, with catastrophic consequences for the international community, and Taiwan was no exception.
Unable to acquire sufficient knowledge to contain the pandemic, one hospital in Taiwan was placed entirely in quarantine; no one was allowed to leave the building. The whole society looked on in horror, and numerous healthcare personnel sacrificed their lives while waiting for effective cures to be found.
In the hope of containing the outbreak and contributing our medical expertise and resources to the global fight, Taiwan made the case for being allowed to join the WHO and be included in global health discussions.
With the help of countries that had diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and support from various quarters around the world, a motion inviting Taiwan to join WHO discussions as an observer was proposed. Nevertheless, the Chinese representative told the assembly that such an invitation was inconsistent with the “principles” of the organisation and therefore unacceptable.
After the session, Chinese representatives were asked if the Beijing government had heard the voice of Taiwanese people pleading for help from the international community. One of them, Sha Zukang, told the Taiwanese journalists: “Who cares about you guys?”
Despite being excluded from the global health network, however, scientists in Taiwan still managed to identify 15 effective medications out of more than 10,000 combinations, and to share their findings with the world.
But despite Taiwan’s contribution during the Sars outbreak, almost nothing has changed even as thousands are falling ill from
Covid-19. Taipei is still outside the WHO, looking in.
At a meeting of the WHO executive board on Feb 3, the representative from Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) was warning participants that excluding Taiwan would create a gap in the global preventive system, when a Chinese representative interrupted. The latter claimed that the situation in Taiwan had been taken care of by the Chinese government and asked representatives of other countries to stop making “irresponsible statements”.
Epidemics and pandemics should never be a political wrestling ring, and the health of 23 million people should not be sacrificed to appease the appetite of one country for political suppression.
It’s clear that the relationship between Taiwan and China is a knot that cannot be easily untangled. But during global health crises like the current one, rendering Taiwan invisible from the demography of infection could not only sabotage the lives of 23 million people but also create a hole in the global health network.
In the Health Care Index posted recently on Numbeo, an online database where users share information about countries and cities, Taiwan has been ranked first for two years in a row. Since the Sars crisis that struck us so hard over a decade ago, Taiwanese medical practitioners and academics have acquired even more comprehensive capabilities and knowledge to help the international community face the challenges of pandemics and epidemics. Taiwan is always ready to do so much more for the world, in terms of health and beyond.
As I sat at that meeting listening to the vision the WHO has for the global community to combat of the new virus, I couldn’t help but wonder when exactly Taiwan could be included in the global health network with dignity.
Only when the achievements of the medical sector in Taiwan become visible to the international community, without the filter applied by Beijing, can the general healthy conditions of both the Taiwanese and people around the world be further secured. Behind the political ideology, we are all human beings after all.