US bill won’t help Taiwan attend WHA
The reason why China firmly prohibits separatist Taiwan authority from participating in the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an observer is due to the fact such authority has abandoned the one-China principle, and no matter how the US politicians and their allies exploit the issue to encourage Taiwan separatism, the only consequence that may ensue is the mainland considering ending this senseless game by solving the Taiwan question once and for all via non-peaceful means.
The US Senate on Monday passed a bill that requests Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to design a strategy to “help Taiwan regain observer status” at the WHA, the decision-making body of the World Health Organization (WHO), to be held on May 17.
Chinese analysts said that in fact, since 2017 when the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) took power ruling
the island, Western politicians, especially US lawmakers and officials, who received funding from the DPP played such games every year ahead of annual WHAs, and they failed every time, and there will be no difference this year, even as the COVID-19 pandemic is becoming a new excuse for them to exaggerate the issue further.
The bill was drafted by Republican Senator Jim Inhofe and Democrat Senator Bob Menendez who co-chairs the Senate’s Taiwan Caucus.
Li Xiaobing, a Taiwan studies expert at Nankai University in Tianjin, told the Global Times on Tuesday that “US congressional members of the caucus have been using the legislature of their country to support Taiwan separatism for a very long time since the Taiwan separatist authorities donate huge amount of money for this service every year. Now these politicians are aiming at a dangerous strategic goal to challenge the oneChina policy.”
Such US politicians have never cared about public health affairs or international cooperation on fighting the pandemic at all, and according to the statement they made, everyone with common sense can see how ignorant they are, while just using their legislative power in the US to earn Taiwan’s money easily, Li said.
Lü Xiang, a research fellow on US studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, told the Global Times that “It seems this senator is living in a world different from the rest of us. We are not belittling the island’s efforts to deal with the outbreak, but it’s a well-known fact across the world that the Chinese mainland has not only sent professional teams to help other countries, but also acting as the logistical center for the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.”
China’s efforts to help other countries have won praises from the WHO and many members among the international community, including many Western countries like Italy and Spain, so it doesn’t worry about the tricks that the Taiwan separatist authority and the US would play at all. Because the international community is very clear about who is really contributing to the global fight against the pandemic and who is politicizing the pandemic to serve its own strategic goals, said the Chinese mainland experts.
Not a big deal
The DPP authority’s image in the mainland is horrible. This is not only because of its separatist stance, but also due to its hostile and inhuman policies against mainlanders.
For instance, the island banned mask exports to the mainland from January, when the outbreak was at its worst, but it donated masks to the US, even though one person on the island is only allowed to buy nine masks in two weeks.
The international community and the WHO understand the issue regarding Taiwan has no relevance to public health affairs, especially about handling the pandemic. The US and its allies, not WHO members, would like to see international cooperation be interrupted any political issue, analysts said. The US can’t even get full support from the G7 to criticize the WHO.
“The firm attitude that the mainland holds against DPP authorities is based on anger among the public on the mainland, and there is no room for any kind of Taiwan separatism in the international multilateral sphere. The DPP should better understand, if it wants Taiwan to return to the WHA as an observer, it should talk to Beijing instead of Washington. The one-China principle is the only key,” Li said.