US bill to help Taiwan get WHA observer status ‘ futile’

The latest US effort to help separatist forces on the island of Taiwan “regain observer status” at the World Health Assembly ( WHA), the decisionmaking body of the WHO, will prove futile again, just like how numerous political stunts pulled by the separatists over the past five years failed to achieve any meaningful results, Chinese experts said on Thursday.

The US House of Representatives passed a bill on Wednesday urging the US State Department to help Taiwan in the matter. The bill, which was introduced by US Senator Bob Menendez and passed in the Senate in August 2021, is expected to be signed by US President Joe Biden, Reuters reported. Menendez visited the island earlier this month, prompting fierce opposition from the Chinese central government.

Though details of the bill remain vague, media reports said the bill directs the US Secretary of State to establish a strategy to help the island obtain observer status at the WHA, which is scheduled next month.

Taiwan was granted WHA observer status from 2009 to 2016.

Taiwan’s WHA participation in the past was the result of an arrangement jointly made by the mainland and the island through consultations on the basis of adhering to the one- China principle, said Xin Qiang, deputy director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University. “Even if the US objected at that time, Taiwan could still participate,” Xin said.

Analysts suggested that the US administration might pull some tricks, such as voicing support for Taiwan separatists during WHA speeches and working with allies to put pressure on the WHO.

But that will prove futile too. In May 2021, despite US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s call to the WHO Director- General to invite Taiwan separatists to participate as an observer at the WHA, that did not happen.

While the separatist Taiwan authorities are focused on meaningless political theatrics, the island is facing a severe wave of COVID- 19 cases. On Thursday, Taiwan reported 11,353 new locally transmitted COVID- 19 cases, breaking the 10,000 mark for the first time since the outbreak.