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Taiwan and the World Health Organization

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"#TaiwanCanHelp" installation art displayed in front of the Palace of Nations in Geneva during the 2023 World Health Assembly.

Taiwan and the World Health Organization (WHO) have a complicated history due to their relationship with China.

History

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Chiang Kai-Shek's Republic of China (ROC) government was one of the founding members of WHO in 1948. After the ROC retreated to Taiwan, it maintained its WHO membership for more than two decades. In 1972, however, the World Health Assembly (WHA), which governs the WHO, voted to recognise the People's Republic of China (PRC) instead, in alignment with the broader shift in the UN at the time.[1][2][3]

From 2009 to 2016, Taiwan participated under "Chinese Taipei" in a limited capacity in the World Health Assembly. The WHA allows non-state observers whereas the WHO requires its members to have statehood. Foreign policy concerns influenced the process preceding and during Taiwan's participation. China blocked any forms of engagement that could undermine its claim as the sole government of both the mainland and Taiwan. This was less of an issue under Taiwan's Kuomintang party, which tacitly recognises the "one China" principle. The Democratic Progressive Party, on the other hand, desires to link WHA observer status with full WHO membership and found participation as a Chinese delegation unacceptable. Nonetheless, Taiwan has made at least some progress in health-related forums compared to its impasse in other UN-affiliated agencies.[3]

On December 31, 2019, Taiwan's government expressed concerns to the WHO about the virus's potential for human-to-human transmission, but received no response. The WHO instead endorsed China's denial of human-to-human transmission until January 21, when China confirmed it. Having experienced the 2002–2004 SARS outbreak, Taiwan immediately adopted vigorous measures for screening, testing, contact tracing, and enforcing quarantines, in what was widely considered a successful pandemic response.[4] This version of events was promoted by U.S. President Donald Trump to discredit China, the WHO, and deepen ties with Taiwan. A subsequent investigation by the Guardian pointed out, however, that Taiwan's communications with the WHO never explicitly mentioned human-to-human transmission and contained the same information as a previous announcement from the health authorities in Wuhan, China. While the WHO on January 14 cited China's statement of "no clear evidence" of human-to-human transmission, it held a broad range of views during that time period. For example, on January 10, 11, and 14, it advised the government and healthcare officials of all countries to be on the look out for human transmission, which was described as a possibility, and to consider quarantining patients.[5][6]

Due to Taiwan's successful response to the COVID-19 pandemic, its inclusion in the WHO gained international attention in 2020, with strong support from the United States, Japan, Germany and Australia.[7] In February 2020, Taiwan became more vocal about its exclusion from World Health Organization meetings.[8]

In an April 2020 interview, Assistant Director-General Bruce Aylward appeared to dodge a question from RTHK reporter Yvonne Tong about Taiwan's response to the pandemic and inclusion in the WHO, saying he couldn't hear her and asking to move to another question.[9] When the video chat was restarted, he was asked another question about Taiwan. He responded by indicating that they had already discussed China and formally ended the interview.[10] The incident led to accusations about the PRC's political influence over the international organization.[11][12][13] In May 2020, Taiwan rejected China's main condition for it to be able to participate at the WHO, which was to accept that it was part of China.[14]

In May 2023, two reporters from Taiwan's Central News Agency were denied access to the World Health Assembly. The exclusion of Taiwanese journalists was criticized by international journalist organizations and the Taiwanese government.[15]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Hale, Erin. "Taiwan taps on United Nations' door, 50 years after departure". www.aljazeera.com.
  2. ^ Chen, Ping-Kuei (2018). "Universal Participation Without Taiwan? A Study of Taiwan's Participation in the Global Health Governance Sponsored by the World Health Organization". Asia-Pacific Security Challenges. Advanced Sciences and Technologies for Security Applications: 263–281. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-61729-9_12. ISBN 978-3-319-61728-2.
  3. ^ a b Herington, Jonathan; Lee, Kelley (December 2014). "The limits of global health diplomacy: Taiwan's observer status at the world health assembly". Globalization and Health. 10 (1): 71. doi:10.1186/s12992-014-0071-y. PMC 4197227. PMID 25270977.
  4. ^ "Why Does the WHO Exclude Taiwan?". Council on Foreign Relations.
  5. ^ Borger, Julian (18 April 2020). "Caught in a superpower struggle: the inside story of the WHO's response to coronavirus". The Guardian.
  6. ^ Beaumont, Peter; Borger, Julian (9 April 2020). "WHO warned of transmission risk in January, despite Trump claims". The Guardian.
  7. ^ "Taiwan Picks Up International Support After Being Barred from World Health Assembly". The Diplomat. Archived from the original on 2023-05-28.
  8. ^ Tan, Huileng (6 February 2020). "Taipei lashes out at China for blocking Taiwan's access to the World Health Organization". CNBC.
  9. ^ Griffiths, James (5 April 2020). "Taiwan's coronavirus response is among the best globally". CNN. Archived from the original on 5 April 2020. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
  10. ^ Grundy, Tom. "Video: Top WHO doctor Bruce Aylward pretends not to hear journalist's Taiwan questions, ends video call". www.hongkongfp.com. Hong Kong Free Press. Archived from the original on 28 March 2020. Retrieved 28 March 2020.
  11. ^ "The Pulse：Coronavirus situations in New York city, London and Lombardy, Italy & interview with WHO Bruce Aylward". YouTube. Interview by Yvonne Tong. RTHK VNEWS. 28 March 2020. 16:35 to 20:59. Archived from the original on 2020-03-28. Retrieved 29 March 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: others (link) Alt URL
  12. ^ Wulfsohn, Joseph (28 March 2020). "WHO accused of 'carrying China's water' after official refuses to acknowledge Taiwan during bizarre interview". Fox News. Gordon G. Chang. Archived from the original on 5 April 2020. Aylward's behavior reminds us that either we remove #China's pernicious influence in multilateral institutions like the #WorldHealthOrganization or the world's free states defund them and start over.
  13. ^ "Why Taiwan has become a problem for WHO". BBC News. March 30, 2020.
  14. ^ "Taiwan rejects China's main condition for WHO participation". Reuters. May 15, 2020 – via www.reuters.com.
  15. ^ Huang, Novia; Chen, Christie (23 May 2023). "Taiwan foreign media club backs CNA reporters barred from covering WHA". focustaiwan.tw. Focus Taiwan. Retrieved 25 May 2023.
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