BEIJING: The island of Taiwan has been ruled out of the World Health Assembly (WHA) for five consecutive years, as the 74th assembly opened on Monday. Experts and the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Taiwan “seeking secessionism through the epidemic” won’t succeed, dismissing the opposition and displeasure from the ruling party on the island.
Despite the COVID-hit island slammed mainland “suppression,” experts said the exclusion is a self-inflicted result of the pro-secessionist Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)’s political manipulation. Taiwan recorded 339 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, marking over 100 cases a day for ten consecutive days. In a joint press release from Taiwan’s health and external affairs’ authorities on Monday, Chen Shih-chung, the head of Taiwan’s health authorities, said that Taiwan not being invited to participate in the WHA “is a loss not only for Taiwan, but also the world.”
Also on Monday, the island, which recently rejected the vaccine from the Chinese mainland, protested through its external affairs authority against a WHO report from The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response in which the island was identified as “Taiwan, China.”
After the WHA rejected the so-called Taiwan’s participation, a spokesperson with the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Monday night that rejecting the Taiwan-related proposal in the WHA has proved that the one-China principle is widely accepted by the international community and represents an irresistible trend, which allows no challenge.
Any attempt of the DPP authorities to seek “secessionism” by exploiting the epidemic is doomed to fail, the spokesperson said. Zhao Lijian, a spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said on Monday that the island of Taiwan’s participation in activities of international organizations, including the WHO, must be handled in accordance with the one-China principle.
– The Daily Mail-Global Times News exchange item
