Taiwan and the World Health Organization (WHO) have a complicated history due to their relationship with China.
Taiwan and the World Health Organization (WHO) have a complicated history due to their relationship with China.
Chiang Kai-Shek's Republic of China (ROC) government was one of the founding members of WHO in 1948. After the ROC retreated to Taiwan, it maintained its WHO membership for more than two decades. In 1972, however, the World Health Assembly (WHA), which governs the WHO, voted to recognise the People's Republic of China (PRC) instead, in alignment with the broader shift in the UN at the time. [1] [2] [3]
From 2009 to 2016, Taiwan participated under "Chinese Taipei" in a limited capacity in the World Health Assembly. The WHA allows non-state observers whereas the WHO requires its members to have statehood. Foreign policy concerns influenced the process preceding and during Taiwan's participation. China blocked any forms of engagement that could undermine its claim as the sole government of both the mainland and Taiwan. This was less of an issue under Taiwan's Kuomintang party, which tacitly recognises the "one China" principle. The Democratic Progressive Party, on the other hand, desires to link WHA observer status with full WHO membership and found participation as a Chinese delegation unacceptable. Nonetheless, Taiwan has made at least some progress in health-related forums compared to its impasse in other UN-affiliated agencies. [3]
On December 31, 2019, Taiwan's government expressed concerns to the WHO about the virus's potential for human-to-human transmission, but received no response. The WHO instead endorsed China's denial of human-to-human transmission until January 21, when China confirmed it. Having experienced the 2002–2004 SARS outbreak, Taiwan immediately adopted vigorous measures for screening, testing, contact tracing, and enforcing quarantines, in what was widely considered a successful pandemic response. [4] This version of events was promoted by U.S. President Donald Trump to discredit China, the WHO, and deepen ties with Taiwan. A subsequent investigation by the Guardian pointed out, however, that Taiwan's communications with the WHO never explicitly mentioned human-to-human transmission and contained the same information as a previous announcement from the health authorities in Wuhan, China. While the WHO on January 14 cited China's statement of "no clear evidence" of human-to-human transmission, it held a broad range of views during that time period. For example, on January 10, 11, and 14, it advised the government and healthcare officials of all countries to be on the look out for human transmission, which was described as a possibility, and to consider quarantining patients. [5] [6]
Due to Taiwan's successful response to the COVID-19 pandemic, its inclusion in the WHO gained international attention in 2020, with strong support from the United States, Japan, Germany and Australia. [7] In February 2020, Taiwan became more vocal about its exclusion from World Health Organization meetings. [8]
In an April 2020 interview, Assistant Director-General Bruce Aylward appeared to dodge a question from RTHK reporter Yvonne Tong about Taiwan's response to the pandemic and inclusion in the WHO, saying he couldn't hear her and asking to move to another question. [9] When the video chat was restarted, he was asked another question about Taiwan. He responded by indicating that they had already discussed China and formally ended the interview. [10] The incident led to accusations about the PRC's political influence over the international organization. [11] [12] [13] In May 2020, Taiwan rejected China's main condition for it to be able to participate at the WHO, which was to accept that it was part of China. [14]
In May 2023, two reporters from Taiwan's Central News Agency were denied access to the World Health Assembly. The exclusion of Taiwanese journalists was criticized by international journalist organizations and the Taiwanese government. [15]
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and has six regional offices and 150 field offices worldwide.
The 2002–2004 outbreak of SARS, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus, infected over 8,000 people from 30 countries and territories, and resulted in at least 774 deaths worldwide.
China is one of the members of the United Nations and is one of five permanent members of its Security Council. One of the victorious Allies of World War II, the Republic of China (ROC) joined the UN as one of its founding member countries in 1945. The subsequent resumption of the Chinese Civil War between the government of Republic of China and the rebel forces of the Chinese Communist Party, led to the latter's victory on the mainland and the establishment of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. Nearly all of Mainland China was soon under its control and the ROC government retreated to the island of Taiwan.
The World Health Assembly (WHA) is the forum through which the World Health Organization (WHO) is governed by its 194 member states. It is the world's highest health policy setting body and is composed of health ministers from member states.
Observer status is a privilege granted by some organizations to non-members to give them an ability to participate in the organization's activities. Observer status is often granted by intergovernmental organizations (IGO) to non-member parties and international nongovernmental organizations (INGO) that have an interest in the IGO's activities. Observers generally have a limited ability to participate in the IGO, lacking the ability to vote or propose resolutions.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is an Ethiopian public health official, researcher, diplomat, and the Director-General of the World Health Organization since 2017. He is the first African to become WHO Director-General, receiving an endorsement for the role by the African Union. Tedros played a role in the response to the Ebola virus epidemic, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 2022–2023 mpox outbreak.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had far-reaching consequences beyond the spread of the disease itself and efforts to quarantine it, including political, cultural, and social implications.
The COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan was a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. As of 19 March 2023 in Taiwan, 10,231,343 are confirmed cases, including 18,775 deaths.
Bruce Aylward is a Canadian physician and epidemiologist. Since September 2017 he has been Senior Advisor to the Director-General of the World Health Organization. He is part of the implementation of the WHO's COVAX Facility. He has past experience in the areas of polio eradication, Zika virus, and Ebola.
Maria DeJoseph Van Kerkhove is an American infectious disease epidemiologist. With a background in high-threat pathogens, Van Kerkhove specializes in emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases and is based in the Health Emergencies Program at the World Health Organization (WHO). She is the technical lead of COVID-19 response and the head of emerging diseases and zoonosis unit at WHO.
The Pulse was a Hong Kong weekly current affairs television program produced by RTHK that airs on RTHK TV 31, which provided in-depth reports and interviews on current issues in Hong Kong, mainland China and the rest of the world. Created by its first executive producer Gary Pollard, the series broadcast its first episode on January 7, 2005. The programme was hosted by Stephen Vines, a British writer and journalist.
COVID-19 surveillance involves monitoring the spread of the coronavirus disease in order to establish the patterns of disease progression. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends active surveillance, with focus of case finding, testing and contact tracing in all transmission scenarios. COVID-19 surveillance is expected to monitor epidemiological trends, rapidly detect new cases, and based on this information, provide epidemiological information to conduct risk assessment and guide disease preparedness.
This article documents the chronology of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2020, which originated in Wuhan, China in December 2019. Some developments may become known or fully understood only in retrospect. Reporting on this pandemic began in December 2019.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a leading organisation involved in the global coordination for mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic within the broader United Nations response to the pandemic.
Kenneth Chuang Yin-ching is a Taiwanese epidemiologist. As of January 2020, he leads the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (TCDC) Communicable Disease Control Medical Network.
The United Nations response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been led by its Secretary-General and can be divided into formal resolutions at the General Assembly and at the Security Council (UNSC), and operations via its specialized agencies and chiefly the World Health Organization in the initial stages, but involving more humanitarian-oriented agencies as the humanitarian impact became clearer, and then economic organizations, like the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the International Labour Organization, and the World Bank, as the socioeconomic implications worsened.
The Chinese government has actively engaged in disinformation to downplay the emergence of COVID-19 in China and manipulate information about its spread around the world. The government also detained whistleblowers and journalists claiming they were spreading rumors when they were publicly raising concerns about people being hospitalized for a "mysterious illness" resembling SARS.
The WHO-convened Global Study of Origins of SARS-CoV-2 or the Joint WHO-China Study was a collaborative study between the World Health Organization and the Government of China on the origins of COVID-19. The study was commissioned by the Director-General of the World Health Organization following a request by the 2020 World Health Assembly in which 122 WHO members proposed a motion, which included a call for a "comprehensive, independent and impartial" study into the COVID-19 pandemic" The WHO disbanded the team and proposed a new panel called Scientific Advisory Group for Origins of Novel Pathogens.
The COVID-19 pandemic in China is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). China was the first country to experience an outbreak of the disease, the first to impose drastic measures in response, and one of the first countries to bring the outbreak under control.
Taiwan, officially known as the Republic of China, has not been a charter member of the United Nations (UN) since 1971. Historically, the Republic of China joined the United Nations as a founding member and was one of five permanent members of the Security Council until the People's Republic of China took the "China" seat in 1971.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: others (link) Alt URL Aylward's behavior reminds us that either we remove #China's pernicious influence in multilateral institutions like the #WorldHealthOrganization or the world's free states defund them and start over.
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