COMMENTARY
Let Taiwan join the WHO
By Denny Roy
The World Health Assembly, the decision-making body for the World Health Organization, opens its annual meeting tomorrow. Among the items on the provisional agenda is a proposal to grant Taiwan observer status in the WHO.
Wally Santana • Associated Press
Taiwan has attempted to join the organization eight times previously, but each of these attempts failed because of opposition from China. This year, the U.S. government and the European Union are supporting Taiwan's WHO participation.
Sitting with his country's senior health officials, Taiwan Foreign Minister Chen Tan-sun, center, opened a news conference addressing Taiwan's bid for membership in the World Health Organization on Tuesday in Taipei. Taiwan is making its ninth bid to join the U.N. health agency despite opposition from China.
This is proper, as the international community should insist that Taiwan belongs in the WHO.
China's opposition to Taiwan's participation stems from the political dispute over Taiwan's relationship to China.
Beijing maintains that Taiwan should be a province of China.
Although the Communist Party has never ruled Taiwan, Beijing argues that the government controlling the mainland has jurisdiction over Taiwan because the island is part of "China."
Taiwan's people are divided on the question of whether Taiwan should someday politically unify with China, but most agree they do not want to give up their hard-won democratic system to become subjects of the Beijing regime, especially under the threat of military attack.
Part of Beijing's strategy to re-incorporate the island is to isolate Taiwan internationally — a diplomatic blockade to make life more difficult for Taiwan's people until they agree to China's terms. China, therefore, uses its influence, and in some cases outright coercion, to attempt to stop foreign governments from establishing normal relations with Taiwan or allowing the island to join international organizations.
Beijing argues that since Taiwan is part of China rather than an independent country, any relationships that imply statehood for Taiwan are an affront to China's sovereignty and "hurt the feelings of the Chinese people."
Most of the world has official diplomatic relations with China and an unofficial working relationship with Taiwan. Taiwan does not have a seat in the United Nations General Assembly, but some international organizations have worked out compromises to allow Taiwan to participate.
Taiwan joined the World Trade Organization, for example, under the name "Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu," and participates in the Olympic Games as "Chinese Taipei," names that help mollify Beijing's demand that Taiwan should not be treated as an independent country.
If Taiwan can participate in international organizations that promote sport and trade, why not one that promotes the even more important human need of health?
The injustice of the situation was dramatically illustrated by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, outbreak in 2002-2003 which affected China, Taiwan, and several other Asia-Pacific countries.
WHO member China, the source of the outbreak, initially tried to cover up the problem, facilitating the spread of the disease within China and to Taiwan. China insisted that any WHO contact with Taiwan had to go through Beijing, which delayed WHO assistance to the island.
Despite the many official Chinese statements that have expressed concern for "Taiwan compatriots," China's mishandling of the SARS crisis caused additional suffering to the people of Taiwan.
Taiwan's diplomatic and political isolation does not change the reality that Taiwan is connected to the outside world socially and geographically. Microbes and viruses do not recognize political boundaries.
Taiwan, like any other inhabited place, is a potential source, destination and way station of disease. Excluding Taiwan from the global healthcare network that the WHO represents creates additional and unnecessary risks for people both within and outside of Taiwan.
Taiwan was a participant from the inception of the WHO in 1948 until 1972. Taiwan's exit followed the loss of its United Nations seat to China. With its highly educated population and advanced medical technology industry, Taiwan has much to contribute to global health efforts. Groups dispatched from Taiwan have provided untold amounts of medical assistance to developing countries around the world over decades of service. Scientists in Taiwan are willing to share their discoveries with the rest of the world, but exclusion from the WHO hampers this objective.
Allowing Taiwan to participate in the WHO would hardly be a significant blow to China's political agenda. WHO membership is not an exclusive privilege. The organization includes nearly 200 countries, some of which are not members of the United Nations.
Entities such as the Vatican and the Palestine Liberation Organization enjoy the observer status that Taiwan seeks. China's opposition to Taiwan's participation in the WHO actually is counterproductive. As noted above, Taiwan already is included in other international organizations, so this would break no new political ground. Indeed, China's position has worked against Beijing's interests by creating international sympathy for Taiwan's victimization by China and by deepening ill will toward China among Taiwan's people.
The WHO's constitution affirms that health is "one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, political belief, economic or social condition." Taiwan's 23 million inhabitants should not be denied this right because of a political tactic by a rival government.
Denny Roy is an associate professor at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu. This article, which reflects the author's personal opinions, not those of the U.S. government, the Pacific Command or the Asia-Pacific Center, was written for The Advertiser.
