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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》 WHO efforts to continue: Chen
Taiwan’s representative office in Geneva displays a billboard that reads: “Taiwan Can Help” in front of the UN Geneva Office on Monday. Photo: CNA
By Lee I-chia / Staff reporter, with CNA
Taiwan will continue to push for participation in WHO events, despite being excluded from this year’s World Health Assembly （WHA）, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung （陳時中） said yesterday.
Taiwan did not receive an invitation to attend the resumption of the annual meeting of the WHO’s decisionmaking body on Monday after a shortened online version was held in May.
Any hope of a reversal ended on Monday when on the first day of the resumed session, the WHA refused a proposal inviting Taiwan to participate in the World Health Assembly as an observer on the supplementary agenda of the General Assembly.
In a video statement to the WHA on Monday, US Representative to the UN in Geneva Andrew Bremberg said that Washington has long supported Taiwan’s meaningful participation in the WHO, praising Taiwan as a “role model” in its battle against COVID-19, while highlighting the valuable lessons it has to share with the world.
In preventing Taiwan’s participation, the WHO allowed “some” to politicize public health, “and allowed its core mission to suffer,” Bremberg said in an apparent reference to China, which has aggressively blocked Taiwan’s attempts to participate in international organizations.
However, WHA President Keva Bain said that a committee had recommended against approving a proposal to include Taiwan as an observer.
Chen said he was not surprised that Taiwan was not invited to the virtual meeting because it did not receive an invitation to join the WHA in May.
“Taiwan’s participation in international organizations requires gradual steps, and we have made progress each year, so we will continue to make an effort,” he said.
Premier Su Tseng-chang （蘇貞昌） said that China’s continued obstruction of Taiwan’s inclusion in the WHA for political reasons would only lead to more backlash from the international community.
Taiwan took part in the WHA from 2009 to 2016, but China has pressured the WHO not to invite Taiwan since 2017 after President Tsai Ing-wen （蔡英文） took office in May 2016.
To help raise awareness of Taiwan’s WHO bid, the government on Monday published a full-page ad in the New York Times, as well as this month in Time magazine, using the “Taiwan Can Help” slogan and support for the country’s participation in the WHO.
The Taiwan United Nations Alliance （TAIUNA） criticized the WHO for allowing politics to override disease prevention.
More than 1,700 government officials and politicians around the world, as well as the World Medical Association, which has more than 10 million members in 115 nations, had written to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus asking that Taiwan be granted observer status at the WHA, but he still refused, TAIUNA chairman Twu Shiing-jer （涂醒哲） said.
It has been more than 200 days since Taiwan last reported a locally transmitted case of COVID-19 and the nation has proven to be one of the best in containing the coronavirus, but the WHO does not care about how Taiwan can share its experience and expertise with other countries, he said.
“Due to obstruction from China, the WHO has allowed politics to override science and disease prevention expertise, which is very undesirable,” Twu said.
In addition to protesting against the WHO’s exclusion of Taiwan, people should seriously think about the possibility of forming a new “WHO without China,” he said.
Taiwanese should consider whether to hold a referendum to seek national consensus on whether Taiwan should join the WHO as a member state, whether the name “Taiwan” should be used for participation, and whether they would rather be ruled by the Chinese Communist Party, he added.
Additional reporting by Reuters
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
