China pushes Taiwan out of World Health Assembly

China has won a proposal to end Taiwan’s participating as an observer at the World Health Assembly for the first time in eight years.

It came after a general committee of the assembly proposed to strike out Taiwan’s admission on to the WHA’s 71st meeting on Monday in Geneva.

China called Taiwan’s persistence to remain on the assembly “illegal and unreasonable” and against its “one-China” policy.

But Taiwan, a state of some 23 million people, has been on the assembly as an observer for the last eight years since 2009.

China said it allowed Taiwan’s participation on the basis of a political arrangement which has been taken by a new government.

The status of Taiwan as an independent state or as a territory of China has been the source of controversy.

Delegates from both the Marshall Islands and St Vincent in the Grenadines backed Taiwan’s admission.

Marshall Islands insisted Taiwan’s inclusion was “about global health and human safety, not politics”.

Taiwan acquires health and safety information often late, and its contact point is not listed on the WHA site—an arrangement that impairs information passage, the Marshall Islands argued.

It insisted Taiwan missed out on opportunity to learn technical information.

“Let’s not leave 23 million people of Taiwan behind,” Marshall Islands argued.

For long, Taiwan has existed in international meetings—attending the World Health Assembly for eight years—under the label “Chinese Taipei”.

The Grenadines insisted previous invitation to Taipei served as basis for its recognition at the assembly and that Taiwan’s observer status did not contravene the “one China” policy.

Pakistan’s support of one-China policy helped quash Taiwan’s admission after it backed what it called “efforts to safeguard China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

It condemned efforts of Taiwan and its supporters to introduce “divisive issues” using what it called “self-serving moves to undermine WHA efforts.”

It said the Taiwan issue was “wasting time and resources on petty politics.”