U.S. ambassador, lawmakers call for Taiwan's WHA inclusion
ROC Central News Agency
11/10/2020 01:59 PM
Brussels and Taipei, Nov. 10 (CNA) The United States mission to the United Nations in Geneva and American lawmakers called for Taiwan to be included in the annual World Health Assembly (WHA) that began Monday without the participation of Taiwan.
In a video statement to the assembly, Andrew Bremberg, the U.S. representative to the U.N. in Geneva, said the U.S. has long supported Taiwan's meaningful participation in the World Health Organization (WHO).
"We believe Taiwan's inclusion would benefit the world and the WHO," Bremberg said, praising the island as a "role model" in its battle against COVID-19 while highlighting the valuable lessons Taiwan has to share with the world.
"And yet, the 23 million people living on Taiwan are excluded from the important work of this body. More importantly, the international community is not allowed to benefit from the expertise offered by Taiwan," he said.
Taiwan did not receive an invitation to attend the resumption of the annual WHA meeting on Monday after a shortened online version was held earlier this year in May.
Any hope of a reversal ended Monday when on the first day of the resumed session the WHA refused to include the proposal of "inviting Taiwan to participate in the World Health Assembly as an observer" on the supplementary agenda of the General Assembly.
In preventing Taiwan's participation, the WHO allowed "some" to politicize public health, "and allowed its core mission to suffer," Bremberg charged, tacitly referring to China, which has aggressively blocked Taiwan's attempts to participate in international organizations.
In his video, Bremberg urged WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus to invite Taiwan to participate in the WHA as an observer, as was the case from 2009 to 2016 when Taiwan had better relations with China.
Echoing U.S. support for Taiwan, Republican Congressman Ted Yoho tweeted: "It's not just a matter of deserve. Taiwan's response and contributions to global public health during COVID-19 has proven that Taiwan's participation in global health frameworks like WHA is essential to fighting dangerous disease outbreaks.
"As many nations face a second wave of COVID-19, Taiwan set a record for 200 days [without] infections. Beijing's agenda to block Taiwan deprives us all of expertise and threatens global health," Republican Congressman Marco Rubio wrote on Twitter.
On Tuesday, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said China's continued obstruction of Taiwan's inclusion in the WHA based on political factors will only lead to more of a backlash in the international community.
When asked about the issue at a legislative hearing the same day, Health and Welfare Minister Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said he was not surprised that Taiwan was not invited to the resumed virtual meeting because it did not receive an invitation to join the WHA in May.
Taiwan, formally called the Republic of China, was expelled from the WHO in 1972 after losing its seat in the United Nations due to the issue of "China's representation."
Taiwan took part in the WHA from 2009 to 2016, but China has pressured the WHO not to invite Taiwan since 2017, in line with Beijing's hardline stance on cross-strait relations after President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party took office in May 2016.
To help raise awareness of Taiwan's WHO bid, the Taiwanese government published a full-page ad in the New York Times on Monday, as well as in the November edition of TIME magazine, using the "Taiwan Can Help" slogan and support for the country's participation in the WHO.
(By Ta Ya-chen, Tang Pei-chun, Stacy Hsu, Wang Cheng-chung, Wang Yang-yu, Ozzy Yin and Ko Lin)
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