World health is latest victim in Beijing’s political war on Taiwan
 
Will the World Health Organization appease China’s political agenda at the expense of public health and international values?
 
China’s relentless political war against its democratic neighbor, Taiwan, resulted in another casualty today: international public health. Collateral damage included the WHO’s values and reputation.
 
According to Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the WHO has once again failed to invite Taipei to the annual World Health Assembly. In the MOFA release, Taipei thanks the U.S. government and those organizations and individuals that advocated for its inclusion in this year’s WHA; the release also, notably, graciously refrained from appointing blame for this egregious failure.
 
The invitation did not just get lost in the mail. China’s political warfare apparatus ensured the invitation would not be forthcoming.
 
The 71st WHA will be held in Geneva, Switzerland, May 21-26. Last year’s assembly addressed such vital health threats as polio and antimicrobial resistance, along with emergency preparedness and response, maternal and newborn health issues, noncommunicable diseases and vital WHO governance policies.
 
Until recent years, Taiwan was invited to the WHA, the decision-making body of WHO. From 2009 to 2016, Taiwan was invited to the WHA in observer status, and Taiwan’s representatives contributed by sharing unique experience in such areas as medical science and in preventing the spread of contagious diseases.
 
Despite the Peoples Republic of China’s efforts to isolate Taiwan internationally over four decades, WHO had invited Taiwan to the WHA based, in part, on its constitution that reads “health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition.”
 
Apparently someone in WHO accidentally mislaid WHA’s constitution recently. Missing, too, is any pretense of WHO adhering to universal values concerning human rights.
 
In reality, WHO’s failure to invite Taipei was simply Beijing’s latest victory in its decades-long political warfare campaign against Taiwan’s democratically elected government.
 
As part of this campaign, the PRC has waged an intense and highly coercive offensive against Taiwan’s formal diplomatic allies and international organizations that have, in the past, allowed Taiwan’s participation. The campaign has had its impact, with two of the few remaining countries with whom Taiwan has diplomatic relations defecting to China in the past year.
 
Panama and Dominican Republic switched sides, reportedly with promises of billions of dollars in Chinese aid as quid pro quo. Now only 19 countries globally officially recognize the Republic of China (Taiwan) as the legitimate government of China.
 
Taiwan is a great democratic success story, a thriving economy, and a global leader in health and science. So why does the PRC fear Taiwan so much that it wages this lengthy, expensive and ultimately dangerous political warfare campaign to delegitimize and isolate it?
 
Following the loss of mainland China to communist forces in 1949, the defeated ROC government fled to the island of Taiwan. But the ROC never surrendered. Meanwhile, the Chinese Communist Party founded the PRC, and from the CCP perspective, the ROC ceased to exist. From thereon, Taiwan was considered simply a renegade province that would be taken by force or absorbed eventually.
 
In its quest to subjugate Taiwan, the CCP seeks to limit its global presence under a so-called one China policy principle that asserts there is only one China, the PRC, that Taiwan is part of China and that the PRC is the sole representative of China. Nations worldwide can choose which China to recognize, but the PRC’s population, geographic size, massive economic clout and political warfare strong-arm tactics has gained it the preponderance of diplomatic recognition. In the process, it has excluded Taiwan’s representation in most international organizations.
 
China is strong now, as it constantly reminds us, with intimidating global political, economic, military and intelligence service reach. Many of the elites who run international organizations, and those who govern the 194 nations and entities that comprise the WHA, either fear China’s power to punish—or eagerly seek out its patronage for economic gain.
 
Inconveniently for Beijing, Taiwan has survived, and now stands as an alternative liberal, democratic Chinese government. Taiwan has repeatedly proven it contributes significantly to worldwide public health programs, the human right to good health and to global disease prevention. In health-related issues, as in its peaceful transition to democracy, Taiwan has been a model global citizen.
 
But apparently good citizenship is not enough these days. Such a democracy in a Chinese society poses an existential threat to the CCP leadership, and the CCP will push as hard as it can to completely isolate it and strangle it into submission.
 
But now it is time to push back.
 
The U.S. already backs Taiwan’s participation in the WHA, as does the EU. But many other countries must now recognize that the PRC’s bullying, exclusionary action is a threat to the current international order and their own well-being. Such exclusion endangers the resolution of transnational health challenges, and it is inconsistent with the values of human rights and democracy.
 
But more importantly, the WHO must decide whether it will continue to uphold its constitutional commitment to human rights and inclusion—or whether it, like public health, will be yet one more victim of the totalitarian PRC’s PW success.
 
The WHO still has time to salvage its reputation by inviting Taiwan to the 71st WHA. The time to act is now. (E) (By Kerry Gershaneck)
 
Kerry K. Gershaneck is a professor and currently a Taiwan Fellow at the Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies, National Chengchi University, and a senior research associate with Thammasat University’s Faculty of Law (German-Southeast Asian Center of Excellence for Public Policy and Good Governance). He was previously a senior associate with Pacific Forum CSIS, and a strategic planner and spokesman for the Asia-Pacific Region in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
 
These views are the author’s and not necessarily those of Taiwan Today. Copyright 2018 by Kerry Gershaneck