中文
By Li Zhenguang
From 2009 to 2016, the Chinese mainland agreed a special arrangement with the World Health Organization which allowed Taiwan to attend the meeting of the World Health Assembly, WHO's highest decision-making body, as an observer because the then Taiwan administration acknowledged the 1992 Consensus that there is only one China.
But after Tsai Ing-wen became the island leader in May 2016, she and her Democratic Progressive Party, due to their separatist policies, have refused to acknowledge the one-China principle and thus demolished the political foundation which allowed the island to attend the WHA.
Therefore, it is the DPP that is to blame for Taiwan being barred from the WHA. But despite that, the island has access to the WHO's latest information on the novel coronavirus pandemic and reports on other health issues through a liaison office set up on the island according to the International Health Regulations.
Yet since the coronavirus pandemic broke out, the DPP, despite refusing to recognize the one-China principle based on the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758 of 1971, has been trying to join the WHO as a separate entity.
In short, the DPP has hatched a political conspiracy to take advantage of the pandemic to seek "Taiwan independence". And this conspiracy is being strongly backed by anti-China forces in Washington. In fact, some US officials and congressmen have been pressuring the WHO to allow the island to attend the WHA meeting unconditionally.
That the United States is trying to incite the international community against the WHO and Beijing is evident from the fact that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has personally urged countries around the world to back Taiwan's unreasonable demand and has been pressuring WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to invite the island to attend the WHA. From the US Congress and US ambassador to the UN to the American Institute in Taiwan, all of them have joined the island-cheering squad on social media.
The US' active support to the "pro-independence" Taiwan authorities is one in a series of US moves that has deteriorated Sino-US relations in recent years. The US is playing the "Taiwan card" to create more political troubles for the Chinese mainland, especially to divert American people's attention from the failure of the administration to control the coronavirus outbreak at home.
By openly backing the DPP's separatist policies, Washington intends to intensify cross-Straits disputes and get the upper hand against Beijing. It is of least concern to Washington that in this Sino-US conflict the island could end up being the worst sufferer.
As Ma Xiaoguang, spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said, the motive behind the DPP seeking to attend the WHA meeting is not to improve the health of the island's residents but to push the island's "independence" agenda forward.
On May 4, the WHO reiterated that the People's Republic of China is the only legitimate representative of China to the UN. And the WHO, as a UN organization, has to abide by the UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, which explicitly says Taiwan is an integral part of China and both sides of the Taiwan Straits belong to one China.
Taiwan can attend the WHA or take part in any activity of any international organization, and that too as an observer, only after it recognizes the one-China principle. The US' insistence that the WHO accept Taiwan as a separate entity is a violation of not only UN Resolution 2758 but also of international principles and the existing world order. For the past four years, the US and the DPP have been trying to force international organizations to include Taiwan as a separate entity but have failed in their evil designs. And their latest attempt, too, is doomed to failure.
This is an era of multilateralism; the days when the US arbitrarily manipulated global organizations to maintain its hegemony are gone. According to the UN Charter, the UN and its affiliated bodies are built to serve all countries and people rather than one single country and its people. And the US, despite its muscle power and allies, has not been able to change this fact nor has it succeeded in preventing many developing countries to uphold fairness and justice in international relations or in resolving regional and global disputes.
Taiwan is a part of China and it must acknowledge the one-China principle to be eligible to attend the activities of international organizations. And the US and the DPP will never succeed in their attempt to use the pandemic to promote "Taiwan independence".
The author is a professor at the Institute of Taiwan Studies, Beijing Union University.
