Taiwan’s presence at
a World Health Organization (WHO) meeting this week on the new coronavirus was
the result of direct talks between the island and the body and did not require
China’s permission, Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.
The island’s lack of WHO membership, due to
the objections of China, which considers it a wayward Chinese province and not
a separate state, has been an increasingly sore point for Taiwan amid the virus
outbreak. Taiwan has complained it has been unable to get timely information
from the WHO and has accused China of passing incorrect information to the
organization about Taiwan’s total virus case numbers, which stand at 18. China
has more than 44,000.
But in a small diplomatic breakthrough for the
island, its health experts were this week allowed to attend an online technical
meeting on the virus. China’s Foreign Ministry said that was because China gave
approval for Taiwan’s participation. Taiwan Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Joanne
Ou said China was trying to take credit for something it didn’t deserve. “The
participation of our experts at this WHO forum was an arrangement made by our
government and the WHO directly. It did not need China’s approval,” Ou added.
Taiwan’s experts took part in a personal capacity to avoid political disputes,
and did not give their nationality when joining the online forum, she said. The
WHO, responding to questions from Reuters, said the aim of the meeting was to
gather leading global scientists “to set research priorities and accelerate the
generation of critical scientific information and the most needed medical
tools” to contribute to the emergency response to the virus.
Taiwan’s WHO exclusion became another point of
contention between China and the United States last week, after the U.S.
ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva told the WHO’s Executive Board that the agency
should deal directly with Taiwan’s government. China, which says Beijing
adequately represents Taiwan at the WHO, accused the United States of a
political “hype-up” about the issue. China and the WHO say they have ensured
Taiwan is kept up to date with virus developments and that communication with
the island is smooth. Taiwan’s democratically elected government says that it
alone has the right to represent the island’s 23 million people, that it has
never been a part of the People’s Republic of China, and that it has no need to
be represented by them.