Taipei's illusion of joining WHA breaks again

This is an editorial from China Daily.

Before the ongoing 76th World Health Assembly opened in Geneva on Monday, about 140 member states expressed their objection to Taiwan joining the WHA, of which about 100 issued open statements or sent letters of opposition to the director-general of the World Health Organization.

Supported by the United States and some other Western countries, the Democratic Progressive Party authorities in Taipei have applied to participate in the WHA as an observer for the past seven years. Each time they have failed.

As Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said on Monday, this fully shows that the one-China principle has international support and represents the prevailing trend that cannot be challenged.

Tsai Ing-wen and her independence-minded Democratic Progressive Party should reflect on the seven years from 2009 to 2016 when Taiwan did participate in the WHA as an observer.

That was the period when the Kuomintang authorities recognized the 1992 Consensus and the cross-Strait relationship warmed up. It was not until Tsai and the DPP took office in 2016 and refused to adhere to the 1992 Consensus that the central government no longer supported the arrangement.

It is Tsai and the DPP that have ruined the political basis for Taiwan's participation in the WHA and other international activities as a non-state member.

In a statement published on the US Department of State website on Thursday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington will continue to support Taiwan's participation in international organizations where statehood is not required, in line with the US' one-China policy.

But its actions have exposed how it is simply playing word games.

In its statement, the US also said that "Viruses do not respect borders, and no one is safe until everyone around the world is safe from such threats."

That is what Beijing has stressed throughout the pandemic. The DPP authorities claim that Taiwan's not being able to attend the WHA as an observer "poses a serious threat to global health". Yet the central authorities have made arrangements for the island's medical and health experts to participate in the WHO's technical meetings and there are points of contact for timely access to and notification of health emergencies.

For seven years, Tsai and the DPP have been constantly hijacking the health of the island's 23 million residents for their own political machinations.

No matter how many times they try this trick, they will always fail.