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Taiwan fights to attend WHO meeting as China denies entry

WION Web Team
TaiwanUpdated: May 10, 2021, 07:54 PM IST
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Taiwan and China Photograph:(Agencies)

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The World Health Organization has declared that it is up to member states to invite Taiwan to the meeting.

Taiwan which has been praised internationally for containing the coronavirus pandemic, said today that it is yet to receive an invite from the World Health Organization's(WHO) decision-making body, the World Health Assembly, which meets from May 24.

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China has reportedly disallowed Taiwan's participation as it claims the country is a breakaway province even as Taiwan declared it will "fight to the last minute" for an invitation to the WHO.

"The foreign ministry will continue to work together with the Ministry of Health and Welfare to fight to the last minute and do everything possible for our right to participate in the meeting," Taiwan's foreign ministry official said.

The WHO on the other hand has declared that it is up to member states to invite Taiwan to the meeting.

"I want to emphasise once again that the Taiwan issue concerns China's core interests. China has no room for compromise," China's foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said.

China had earlier condemned a joint statement by G7 foreign ministers which expressed support for Taiwan, saying it was gross interference in China's internal affairs.

"This is the wanton destruction of the norms of international relations," the Chinese foreign ministry had said, adding, "they should not criticise and interfere in other countries with a high-and-mighty attitude, undermining the current top priority of international anti-pandemic cooperation."

"The G7, as a group for developed countries, should do more to push forth the global economic recovery and help developing countries develop even faster, rather than creating confrontations and divisions to disturb global economic recovery," it asserted.

Taiwan's presidential office thanked the G7 for the move while promising to "deepen the cooperative partnership with G7 member countries".

Relations between China and Taiwan have nosedived in recent months with the Chinese Air Force entering Taiwan's airspace on a number of occasions with Taiwan scrambling jets to counter the PLA jets.