Guest essay by Eric Worrall
The global anger at China’s lies, coverups and incompetence in response to Covid-19 has delivered its first fruit; nations are putting global pandemic safety ahead of China’s sensitivity to any kind of international recognition of Taiwan as a sovereign nation.
WHO Becomes Battleground as Trump Chooses Pandemic Confrontation Over Cooperation
Critics say fighting the coronavirus has become secondary as U.S. seeks to hamstring the World Health Organization, turning it into a 2020 election issue along with Chinese trade.
BY COLUM LYNCH APRIL 29, 2020, 1:31 PM
The Trump administration is seeking to enlist the support of key allies to restore Taiwan’s status as an observer at the World Health Organization, setting the stage for a fresh confrontation with China as the world struggles to contain the coronavirus pandemic, according to diplomatic sources and notes of internal meetings at the global health agency.
The United States and Japan are asking key like-minded nations, including Australia, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, to co-sign a draft letter to Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of WHO, requesting he invite the Taiwanese delegation to the World Health Assembly, the United Nations health agency’s key decision-making body, which is expected to meet virtually in mid-May.
The WHO initiative has a limited chance of success since nothing irks Beijing more than support for Taiwan, which it regards as a renegade province, and China is likely to retaliate against any move by Tedros or by other governments to include Taiwan in deliberations on public health. But the Trump administration’s bid provides the latest sign that Washington is placing a higher priority on eliciting criticism of China, its chief geostrategic adversary, than exploring ways the two superpowers, or other governments for that matter, could collaborate in preventing the spread of the coronavirus.
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Read more: https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/04/29/world-health-organization-who-battleground-trump-taiwan-china/
Australia signalled their support, joining the USA and Japan.
ROC was ejected from the WHO in 1971, over US objections, when the majority of nations embraced Communist China as the sole representative of China and Taiwan.
Although the WHO has done a pitiful job of responding to the Covid-19 pandemic, with its poor advice and criticism of travel restrictions, it is utterly unreasonable to exclude Taiwan from observer membership of a body whose purpose is to keep the world safe from future pandemics.
By continuing to oppose Taiwanese participation in the face of the Covid-19 outbreak, and Communist China’s useless response to the outbreak, the CCP is demonstrating they haven’t learned anything; they still believe their own selfish geopolitical objectives are more important than the wellbeing of the Taiwanese people and the rest of the world.
Until the U.S. sets up an embassy in Taiwan, giving direct recognition of Taiwan as an independent nation, the rhetoric around the WHO and observer status is simply ‘noise’. NOW is the time to be bold. Calling the bluff of the PRC will not ignite a world war; it will precipitate clarity and bring the overall ugliness of this authoritarian regime to the fore. The U.S. must ‘get ahead’ of the military and geopolitical curve in the 100 year plan of the PRC leadership. Act NOW.
Am I given to understand that the best we can do to fight a global pandemic, the possibility of future global pandemics, as well as the arm twisting and lies of a world power suppressive communist regime is a strongly worded letter?