By Johnson Lai, Associated Press — Taipei, Taiwan, Wednesday 6 May 2020
Taiwan’s exclusion from the upcoming World Health Assembly would harm the global response to the coronavirus pandemic and cannot be excused by mere rules of procedure, the island’s health minister said Wednesday.
Chen Shih-chung told international media that global health officials “have not been honest and failed in their responsibilities,” in an apparent reference to the UN World Health Organization. “The most important thing in the world pandemic is transparency. Each one has to share what they know about it,” Chen said.
Beijing claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has excluded it from the United Nations and its subsidiary organizations. Chen Xu, China’s ambassador to UN institutions in Geneva, said Taiwan had “closed the door” on itself by abandoning the one-China policy.
In Washington, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called upon “all nations, including those in Europe, to support Taiwan’s participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly.” As of Wednesday, Taiwan had recorded just 438 cases of COVID-19 and six deaths, despite being a short flight from China where the virus was first detected.