Taiwan castigates Beijing for keeping away from WHO Assembly

Taiwan, faced with a resurgence of the epidemic, is still not allowed to participate in the WHO Assembly.

REUTERS / Ann Wang

Text by: RFI Follow

2 min

As the World Health Assembly opens today, one country will not be there: Taiwan.

The democratic archipelago claimed by the People's Republic of China yesterday lamented pressure from Beijing to prevent its participation.

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With our correspondent in Taipei, 

Adrien Simorre

Nothing will have helped.

For the fifth year in a row, Taiwan will not participate in the World Health Assembly, WHO's highest decision-making body.

The disappointment is sizeable on the democratic archipelago, which has been fighting in recent weeks against an upsurge in the epidemic.

"

The WHO should refuse political interference from China,

" Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said yesterday.

Taiwan has been

excluded from the WHO

since 2016 at the request of China.

Beijing then intended to sanction the election of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-Wen, firmly opposed to Chinese annexation.

But since the start of the pandemic, many voices have been raised in support of the archipelago's participation in the WHO, such as the platform signed by

72 French parliamentarians

in March.

The latter recalled that Taiwan was one of the first countries in the world to warn about the seriousness of the epidemic in China.

For its supporters, it therefore makes sense that Taipei is participating in an assembly whose agenda is precisely to anticipate the next global pandemics.

But these efforts will have been in vain.

It remains to be seen whether the question will be raised during the Assembly.

Listen again: International guest: "Support for Taiwan's participation in WHO reaches its climax"

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  • WHO

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  • Coronavirus

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