Taipei holds out hope for invitation to WHO forum

World health body has remained silent despite growing calls for island to attend virtual event

Taiwan has not yet received a long sought-after invitation from the World Health Organization despite a growing international chorus calling for the self-ruled island to attend the World Health Assembly this month.

The democratic island has received worldwide praise for its success in containing Covid-19 over the past year, but as yesterday’s registration deadline loomed, there was no news from the WHO Secretariat about an invitation to the virtual event from May 24 to June 1, officials said.

Deputy foreign minister Tien Chung-kwang acknowledged yesterday that the island’s government was yet to receive the invitation, but said it would not give up.

“We will fight to the last minute,” he said. “Since the meeting begins on May 24, with great effort and the support of the world we may still – until the night of May 23 – be able to make it.”

Speaking about Taipei’s confidence, Tien said: “When [the present situation is] compared with the past, the magnitude [of support] has grown stronger globally and when it accumulates to a certain level, the possibility [of taking part] will increase.”

Joanne Ou, the foreign ministry spokeswoman, called on WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to uphold the principle of professional neutrality and respond to international support by inviting the island to attend on May 24.

Taipei was ousted from the WHO, a UN body, in 1972 – a year after it was expelled from the United Nations when Beijing joined. After a long campaign, it rejoined as a WHA observer in 2009, helped by the island’s then president Ma Ying-jeou’s policy of engaging with Beijing.

But that status was revoked in 2016 when Tsai Ing-wen was elected president and refused to accept the one-China principle.

Since then, Beijing – which claims sovereignty of Taiwan and is influential in the WHO – has maintained that Taipei can only take part with its consent. And as tensions mount across the Taiwan Strait, that consent is not forthcoming.

With the pandemic spreading and many countries blaming Beijing, which governs the province where the virus was first reported in late 2019, the WHO has faced mounting pressure over denying Taipei’s bid and is asked to consider its meaningful participation in WHO activities.

Taiwan’s relative success in keeping the pandemic at bay with fewer than 1,200 infections and just 12 deaths so far has won widespread recognition.

On Friday, the US reiterated its strong support for Taipei to take part in the event as an observer.

“There is no reasonable justification for Taiwan’s continued exclusion from this forum,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. His statement came a day after France’s Senate approved unanimously a resolution to support Taiwan joining international organisations, including WHO and Interpol.