China’s Stand May Prove Unhealthful for Taiwan

Once again, China is gearing up to block Taiwan’s annual bid to rejoin the World Health Organization. For Taipei, the stakes are high. Taiwanese medical authorities are unable to gain access to vital medical information to fight infectious diseases, and, should the island suffer an outbreak of disease, Taiwan is ineligible for assistance because it is excluded from the WHO. As in the past, Beijing will advance a variety of arguments in an effort to justify this hostile behavior. But none will hold up under close examination.

China will argue that Taiwan cannot rejoin the United Nations’ health agency because it is not a sovereign state and forfeited its seat in the WHO when it left the U.N. in 1971. By any accepted definition of the term, however, Taiwan is a state. It exercises predominate authority within its borders, possesses a relatively stable population that both holds elections and owes allegiance to the Taipei government, and maintains formal diplomatic relations with about 30 other countries and close unofficial links with many others.

Irrespective of this fact, however, one must remember that Taiwan is not even seeking to rejoin the WHO as a state. It is seeking to rejoin only as a “health entity” with “observer status.” The Holy See, the Palestine Liberation Organization, the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and the International Committee of the Red Cross are among those with observer status. Moreover, Puerto Rico and Tokelau participate as “associate members.”

China already has reluctantly agreed to Taiwan’s participation in the World Trade Organization as a “customs territory.” And although Beijing is pressuring the Office International des Epizooties, the world animal health organization, to downgrade Taiwan’s membership to a “quarantine territory,” it is not seeking Taiwan’s ouster from the group.

So why can’t Beijing acquiesce to Taiwan’s participation in the WHO as a “health entity” with “observer status”?

When confronted with such facts, Chinese representatives generally shift gears and argue that Taiwan cannot participate in the WHO because it should seek medical assistance from “the central government” in Beijing in a medical emergency. But this argument ignores the fact that the present regime in Beijing has never exercised any control over Taiwan, has never written its laws or funded its government -- and is not accepted by the people of Taiwan as having any authority within its borders. In fact, a growing number of Taiwanese -- including some in the highest levels of the government -- support the island’s de jure separation from China.

Furthermore, it is unlikely that China is capable of offering medical assistance. When the SARS epidemic swept Asia in 2003, many Taiwanese saw in China’s response the deplorable level of medical care there, and in a crisis would probably want no part of it. According to many accounts, medical care in China has deteriorated sharply over the last two decades and shows no sign of improvement.

Finally, China will suggest that there is no need for Taiwan to participate in the WHO because it already enjoys a high standard of public health and has enough access to health information. But this argument ignores the island’s pressing need for medical assistance during national emergencies like the 1999 earthquake and the 2003 SARS epidemic. It also ignores the many health contributions that Taiwan could make to the international community.

Despite the fallacy of its arguments, China will still seek to block Taiwan’s admission to the WHO. This represents only one part of its continuing campaign to strip Taiwan of any vestiges of statehood. But Beijing is worried. It knows that the time is fast approaching when the global community will no longer cave in to its pressure.

A growing number of countries -- led by the United States -- agree that it is in every nation’s best interest to support Taiwan’s application for observer status in the WHO and to help find ways for the island’s voice to be heard in it.