May 6, 2019
No.106
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) of the Republic of China (Taiwan) strongly protests and condemns the malicious actions of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Taiwan Affairs Office in obstructing Taiwan's participation in the World Health Assembly (WHA). Statements by these Chinese government agencies on May 6 cited the so-called "one China principle," distorted the meaning of UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 and WHA Resolution 25.1, and falsely claimed that Taiwan's absence would not create a gap in global disease prevention.
China's pressure on the World Health Organization (WHO) to exclude Taiwan from the WHA runs contrary to the WHO Constitution's espousal of health as a fundamental human right, and completely ignores the health and wellbeing of Taiwan's 23 million people. The heavy-handed approach taken by China only serves to reignite the Taiwanese people's anger and resentment toward it.
Taiwan is a democratic nation widely commended by the international community. Taiwan enjoys full statehood, and is not part of China. In fact, it has never been under the jurisdiction of the Chinese government. Taiwan's sovereignty belongs to the Taiwanese people, and only their democratically elected government can duly represent them. These objective facts will not change even under China's relentless bullying.
While the Chinese government claims that Taiwanese health experts are able to attend WHO technical meetings, the reality is that due to China's suppression, between 2009 and 2018 Taiwanese experts received invitations to only 49 of 165 meetings for which they had applied, representing a rejection rate of 70 percent. China's one-sided claims are completely unsubstantiated, and its misleading assertion that appropriate arrangements have been made for Taiwan's participation in global health affairs is a blatant lie.
As countries worldwide have gained a better understanding of the issues concerning Taiwan's international participation, Taiwan's bid to play a role in the WHA and other WHO activities has won overwhelming support. MOFA reiterates that even if Taiwan is unable to formally participate in WHO, it will continue to assist the Ministry of Health and Welfare in conducting professional exchanges with delegations from other countries during the WHA in Geneva, so that Taiwan can make concrete contributions to the international community.
In light of China's attempts to exclude Taiwan from this year's WHA, MOFA urges the world to recognize the malevolent nature of the Chinese government and support the inalienable rights of the Taiwanese people to take part in international organizations. If international agencies continue to comply with Chinese coercion to reject the Taiwanese people, it will encourage the Chinese government's callousness to grow even further, to the detriment of the entire world. (E)