All eyes were on the WHO as it had to decide whether to invite Taiwan for this week’s World Health Assembly or not. Amidst growing international pressure seeking Taiwan’s participation in the meeting of World Health Organisation, unsurprisingly, yet again Dr Tedros has acted as China’s man and blocked Taiwan’s participation which has greatly irked Taiwan and the international community.
In an unfortunate development, Taiwan has been unfairly denied an invitation to the 73rd World Health Assembly despite the ongoing pandemic. Taiwan is perhaps the only country that has successfully defeated the pandemic as it has recorded only 440 odd infections and 7 deaths and has now undertaken “mask diplomacy” as it strives to help nations fight the pandemic. However, this wasn’t good enough for Dr Tedros-led WHO as they succumbed to Chinese pressure and blocked Taiwan’s participation.
The decision to award Taiwan the observer status has been delayed by the WHO member states to sometime later this year. If granted the observer status, it would have angered Dr Tedros’ masters in China, as China considers Taiwan as a dissenting province that must be reunified, by force if necessary.
“No #WHA73 invitation for #Taiwan. Overwhelming international support, ignored. Ongoing donations of essential #COVID19-combating items, ignored. Sharing the #TaiwanModel, ignored. But #China‘s political bleating, heard loud & clear. We’ll never give in, never, never, never!” tweeted the Foreign Ministry of Taiwan.
No #WHA73 invitation for #Taiwan. Overwhelming international support, ignored. Ongoing donations of essential #COVID19-combating items, ignored. Sharing the #TaiwanModel, ignored. But #China's political bleating, heard loud & clear. We'll never give in, never, never, never! JW
— 外交部 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ROC (Taiwan) 🇹🇼 (@MOFA_Taiwan) May 18, 2020
This move by Dr Tedros has resulted in the USA seething with anger as the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo hit out at the WHO. Pompeo claimed that Dr Tedros “had every legal power and precedent” to include Taiwan in the meeting but chose not to do so under pressure from China.
Pompeo said, “The Director-General’s lack of independence deprives the Assembly of Taiwan’s renowned scientific expertise on pandemic disease, and further damages the WHO’s credibility and effectiveness at a time when the world needs it the most.
Mike Pompeo further added, “The PRC’s spiteful action to silence Taiwan exposes the emptiness of its claims to want transparency and international cooperation to fight the pandemic, and makes the difference between China and Taiwan ever more stark. Taiwan is a model world citizen, while the PRC continues to withhold vital information about the virus and its origins.”
Taiwanese Foreign Minister, Joseph Wu has also accused the WHO to surrender to Chinese influence and block Taiwan’s participation despite strong efforts. Wu said, “Despite all our efforts and an unprecedented level of international support, Taiwan has not received an invitation to take part.”
He further added, “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs expresses deep regret and strong dissatisfaction that the World Health Organization Secretariat has yielded to pressure from the Chinese government and continues to disregard the right to health of the 23 million people of Taiwan.”
Taiwan’s Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang said, “We solemnly urge the World Health Organization Secretariat to reject Beijing’s inappropriate interference.”
In recent history, no country has been subject to complete ignorance as much as Taiwan as the nation was effectively left alone in its battle against the virus. Around the globe, the world is recognising Taiwan’s successful efforts in containing the virus as Taiwan has stepped up the offensive against the WHO. This is not the first time that Taiwan and the WHO are clashing with Dr Tedros shamefully even playing the “race” card when cornered by Taiwan. When left with no answer to explain WHO’s bias against Taiwan, Dr Tedros accused Taiwan of running a racist campaign against him and sending death threats, and added that he did not “give a damn”.
“I can tell you personal attacks that have been going on for more than two, three months. Abuses, or racist comments, giving me names, black or Negro. I’m proud of being black, proud of being Negro. I don’t care, to be honest … even death threats. I don’t give a damn.” He further added, “Three months ago, this attack came from Taiwan. We need to be honest. I will be straight today. From Taiwan,” he said. “And Taiwan, the Foreign Ministry also, they know the campaign. They didn’t disassociate themselves. They even started criticizing me in the middle of all that insult and slur, but I didn’t care.”
Dr Tedros hasn’t uttered a word against the continual absence of Taiwan from WHO’s meetings or why the WHO is calling Taiwan a part of China because except in the wildest dreams of Xi Jinping, there is no alternate reality where Taiwan is ruled by the Chinese Communist Party.
The WHO’s treatment of Taiwan is unbecoming of an international organisation and in hindsight, had the WHO heeded to Taiwan’s early warnings about Human-to-human transmission of COVID-19, the world would have been a much better place right now.
Recently, Taiwan Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou claimed that ever since the start of the coronavirus outbreak, the country has shared the information about its cases and prevention methods with the WHO, however, the organisation never included in the WHO’s daily updated situation report. “Therefore, the health bodies of various countries cannot understand the current situation of Taiwan’s epidemic situation, preventive policies and border quarantine measures from the information provided by the WHO,” Ou said.
The Taiwanese government also slammed the WHO as it was kept out of the organisation during the outbreak which it claimed amounts to playing politics with Taiwanese lives. The country has earned admirers by successfully controlling the virus keeping the toll low thanks to its early detection and control methods.
Despite this, WHO officials are hesitant to even answer questions about Taiwan’s performance. In an interview, Bruce Aylward, a Canadian WHO official, most comically avoided questions about Taiwan, as he pretended he could not hear, and later just quit the interview. This shows how earnestly the WHO serves China’s interests. The WHO has very effectively and shamelessly colluded with the CCP on blocking Taiwan from the World Health Assembly making Taiwan’s WHO membership a far-fetched dream.
