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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》 Pompeo restates support for Taiwan’s WHA bid
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks at a news conference at the White House in Washington on April 8. Photo: AFP
/ Staff writer, with CNA, Washington
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday reiterated that the US supports Taiwan’s participation in the World Health Assembly （WHA）, saying that Taiwan’s presence would be “useful” to the global community during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pompeo was addressing the third Copenhagen Democracy Summit by videoconference when summit host Anders Fogh Rasmussen, chairman of the Alliance of Democracies Foundation, asked whether Taiwan would be allowed to participate in international organizations such as the WHA.
Pompeo said it was appropriate and important for Taiwan to join the WHA at least as an observer.
Taiwan has “a great deal of knowledge to handle the coronavirus very, very well. They have high-end technology, high-end pharmaceutical capability and high-end scientists,” he said.
He added that it would be “very useful” for Taiwan to be a part of the conversation of how the world is going to respond to the pandemic.
Pompeo, who praised Taiwan’s capability in containing the virus, said the US among many other countries had made plenty of efforts to push for Taiwan’s participation in the WHA.
The WHA has another meeting in November and it would be appropriate for Taiwan to join that meeting, he said.
Taiwan, which was expelled from the WHO in 1972, participated at the WHA as an observer from 2009 to 2016 through an invitation from the WHO amid warm relations between Taipei and Beijing during the administration of then-president Ma Ying-jeou （馬英九）.
Rasmussen said Taiwan is a beacon of democracy and served as a contrast to communist China.
Rasmussen’s questions for Pompeo focused on Washington’s challenges in dealing with Beijing, including it last month drafting national security legislation for Hong Kong that China’s rubber stamp National People’s Congress approved, which has raised concerns that the territory’s autonomous status might be threatened.
In response, Pompeo cited US President Donald Trump as saying that if China treats Hong Kong just as any other Chinese area, there is no reason for the US to treat it differently, indicating that Washington might remove the special treatment for Hong Kong that it provides based on US law.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
