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TAIPEI: The World Health Organization (WHO) has “forgotten” its professionalism and neutrality in blocking Taiwan out of the body for political reasons, Taiwan Vice President Chen Chien-jen said on May 14.
Taiwan says China and the WHO have conspired for political purposes to keep him out of key meetings, that the WHO has not responded to requests for information about the coronavirus and has wrongly reported the number of its infections.
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The WHO and China have vigorously disputed the allegations, saying that Taiwan has been given all the help it needs, but that only China, which claims that Taiwan is one of its democratic provinces, has the right to fully represent it in WHO.
READ: COVID-19: the US commission. USA Says Taiwan’s exclusion from WHO caused loss of life
Chen, a trained epidemiologist in the United States, said the WHO had been putting politics above health.
“Unfortunately, for political reasons, the 23 million people in Taiwan have been orphaned in the global health system,” he told reporters at the presidential office in Taipei.
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“The WHO pays too much attention to politics and has forgotten its professionalism and neutrality. This is quite regrettable.”
While the WHO has done a good job and contributed to global health in the past, its record of the virus has not been as good, Chen added.
“In Wuhan pneumonia, we mostly criticize them for acting too slowly,” he said, referring to the central Chinese city where the virus first emerged late last year, before spreading worldwide to infect 4 , 3 million people and kill 295,000.
Chen, who was Taiwan’s health minister during the 2002-2003 SARS crisis, said the world should be wary of China’s virus numbers and urged Beijing to be more transparent.
However, he wished China well in his fight.
“Here I give you my blessings and I hope you can contain Wuhan pneumonia as soon as possible and avoid a second wave,” said Chen, who is leaving office when President Tsai Ing-wen is sworn in for his second term next week.
Taiwan has lobbied to attend the WHO World Health Assembly meeting next week as an observer, but China is opposed.
READ: WHO says ‘it has no mandate’ to invite Taiwan to the assembly meeting
In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Taiwan’s basis for participation in the WHO was damaged by the refusal of its ruling Progressive Democratic Party to recognize that the island is part of China.
Zhao added that there is no legal basis for a “non-sovereign region” to participate as an observer.
The United States has repeatedly clashed with China over its refusal to allow Taiwan full access to the body, helping to increase tension between Washington and Beijing.
The count of 440 virus infections and seven deaths in Taiwan is well below that of many of its neighbors, thanks to effective and early prevention work and an efficient public health system.
