by N. Peter Kramer
In spite of increasing support from the international community China blocked again Taiwan’s participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly, the decision-making body of the World Health Organisation.
Taiwan’s constructive approach to promoting inclusion in the WHO has received global recognition. Not only national parliaments as for example the Czech Senate, the German Bundestag and the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee passed resolutions recently urging the WHO to invite Taiwan to participate in the WHA proceedings. But also 6000 individuals from over 70 countries have called for Taiwan’s participation.
Public officials and members of law-making bodies number among the supporters, which also include representatives from civic bodies, medical associations and think tanks.
During the WHA opening day 12 of Taiwan’s allies submitted a proposal calling for Taiwan’s participation as an observer. The WHO with Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, a protege of China, decided not to include the proposal in the WHA agenda.
The anti-Taiwan attitude became embarrassingly clear in 2020. In an interview, Assistant Director-General Bruce Aylward appeared to dodge a question about Taiwan’s response to the pandemic and inclusion in the WHO, saying he couldn’t hear the journalist. When the question was repeated he formally ended the interview.
It is clear that China’s persistent interference with Taiwan’s WHA participation runs counter to the WHO’s global mandate of Health for All and causes a breach in the global public health network.
‘Taiwan’s decades long contributions to global health, including its donations of medical supplies at the height of the COVD-19 pandemic, have been recognised around the world and made Taiwan an indispensable member of the international community’, said one of Taiwan’s allies.
Remarkable is that Taiwan participated as an observer in the WHA from 2009 to 2016. Then China blocked it from participating following the election of pro-Taiwanese independence Tsai Ing-wen as president in 2016.
Also Taiwanese journalists are denied access to the WHA. This is repeatedly criticised by the International Federation of Journalists.
