Taiwan continues to drum up support for WHO membership amid WHA snub

By Mar-Vic Cagurangan

Taipei—Taiwan continued to seek support for its bid to secure a place in the global health landscape in the face of another defeat at the 78th World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland, where a proposal to allow its participation was rejected anew.

WHA, the World Health Organization’s policymaking body, convenes for a weeklong meeting from May 19 to 27, with Taiwan's absence for the ninth consecutive year.

“Taiwan wants to join WHO or participate in WHA—in fact, we expect a meaningful participation, not just participation on the screen," said Dr. Ching Yi Lin, Taiwan’s deputy health minister.

From 2009 to 2015, Taiwan was able to participate in WHA as an observer but has since been excluded from the meeting.

"We want to have a practical and meaningful participation to really exchange policies, information and cooperation with everyone on public health and medical issues. To build a better network of defense,” Lin said in a press conference in Taipei before the WHA’s decision in Geneva.

Dr. Ching Yi Lin

Taipei Hospital, a facility run by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, serves as a showcase of what Taiwan has to offer: a smart health care system, which boasts digital advancements enabling it to provide high-quality medical care. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Taiwan drew the world's attention for its success in containing the outbreak in its jurisdiction.

Yet, it continued to be shunned by the global health community.

Taiwan was expelled from the WHO in 1972 after China took its seat in the United Nations. Due to pressure from Beijing, WHO does not recognize Taiwan's official status.

“I have been emphasizing the importance of Taiwan's participation in the WHA and WHO,” Lin said. “We are not joining for the sake of joining; we want to join in a meaningful and substantive manner.”

She said Taiwan was hoping to help shape policy and information as well as build cooperation with many countries in the area of health care and public health.

“Over the years, due to the fact that Taiwan was excluded from participation in the WHO, we have not been able to access a lot of information about contagious disease prevention and public health,” Lin said. “ So we were not able to work with many countries in the world and we were denied access to important information sharing."

Dr. Daniel Hu, a physician at Taipei Hospital, noted that Taiwan benefited from international support decades ago.

 "And with the progress we have made, we believe that Taiwan has all the rights to participate in the international community despite the unfriendly nature of certain elements,” he said.

“We also believe that under the UN Charter, we have all the rights to participate in all the activities centered toward all the citizens, all the people in the world. We need to be part of the international community to coordinate, to share and contribute to health.”

Daniel Hu

Despite Taiwan’s exclusion policy, Lin said the government sends a delegation to Geneva every year and has occasionally managed to secure bilateral or multilateral engagement with many countries.

“We can still exchange our professional opinions outside of the health organizations, but beyond that, we would like to continue our existing cooperation with many countries so that we can play a part in public health in the world,” she added.