“Taiwan’s exclusion from the WHO raises questions about the organization’s independence from Beijing”

2023-05-18 12:00:05

Recently, a growing number of European institutions, associations and political leaders, such as the European Parliament, numerous parliamentarians in Germany, Belgium, France, the United Kingdom, Hungary and the Baltic countries (Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia), or the World Medical Association and the Standing Committee of European Doctors, have decided to support Taiwan’s participation in the World Health Assembly (WHA). The latter body is none other than the supreme decision-making body of the World Health Organization (WHO), whose next session will be held from May 21 to 30 in Geneva.

Although this position has not made the headlines in recent European news, it nevertheless deserves to be highlighted, for at least three main reasons. First of all, it is a significant European stand against the health injustice suffered by Taiwan, which stems from its exclusion from the WHO as well as from the majority of the activities of this organization and its health surveillance networks for many years. many years.

The main reason for this sidelining is well known: Beijing’s refusal to see the Taiwanese health authorities participate in the activities of a UN agency as long as Taipei has not recognized the principle of“One China”which regards Taiwan as an integral part of China.

Taiwan plays a critical role in global health

In the past, former Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou’s acknowledgment of the existence of the “agreement of 1992”which ruled that mainland China and Taiwan were part of“One China”had allowed Taiwan to participate in the AMS as an observer and under the name “Chinese Taipei” (from 2009 to 2016).

The refusal of the current Taiwanese President, Tsai Ing-wen, to recognize this consensus and her desire to defend Taiwan’s status as a democratic and sovereign country have resulted, from 2017, in the new exclusion of Taiwan from the Health Assembly (WHA) as well as the activities of WHO and its surveillance networks. A political choice by the WHO which isolates more than 23.9 million citizens and foreign residents in Taiwan from the system of global health governance, and against which European voices have therefore been raised.

Read also: Taipei, capital of the successful fight against Covid-19

Next, the European decision to support Taiwan in its request to participate in WHO activities also reflects an awareness in Europe of the essential role that Taiwan plays, or could play with greater importance, in the field of global health.

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