The severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic has spread rapidly across the world. In the face of the rampant spread of the disease, the Chinese government has not only failed to effectively control the outbreak, but has also intentionally concealed the true situation. It has even obstructed the World Health Organization's (WHO) team from investigating the situation.
Taiwan, on the other hand, immediately informed the WHO and called for help when the disease was first reported here. But the WHO made no response -- completely ignoring the rights and interests of Taiwanese.
The nation's efforts to become an official WHO member or observer have been undermined by China. Last year, China's Minister of Health Zhang Wenkang (張文康) even claimed at a WHO assembly meeting that China can assist Taiwan in health and medical matters. In addition, Beijing has repeatedly claimed that it's taking good care of the health of the Taiwanese people, and it's therefore unnecessary for Taiwan to become a WHO member -- since Beijing already represents us in the organization.
There are obvious discrepancies between these Chinese statements and the real situation. This is proved by a statement made by a WHO official to media in Geneva on March 17, explaining that the WHO was aware of two or three cases of SARS being found in Taiwan. At the same time, the WHO was negotiating with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to have it send specialists to Taiwan to help.
In future, the WHO will continue to cooperate with the CDC to search for and understand the development of the SARS epidemic in Taiwan.
These statements make it abundantly clear that the WHO has not provided Taiwan with any assistance through China, thus exposing as a lie Beijing's statement that China is caring for the health of the people of Taiwan. Blind to these facts, the WHO continues to list Taiwan under the name "China (Taiwan)" in its list of infected areas, thereby treating the nation as a province of China.
When dealing with the health and safety of its own people, domineering China has concealed the situation of the epidemic, which has led to its being spread around the world. When it comes to Taiwan, it places politics above all else, leaving Taiwan outside the WHO and disregarding the health and human rights of the Taiwanese.
John Wang is a TSU lawmaker.
Translated by Eddy Chang and Perry Svensson
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
The military is conducting its annual Han Kuang exercises in phases. The minister of national defense recently said that this year’s scenarios would simulate defending the nation against possible actions the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) might take in an invasion of Taiwan, making the threat of a speculated Chinese invasion in 2027 a heated agenda item again. That year, also referred to as the “Davidson window,” is named after then-US Indo-Pacific Command Admiral Philip Davidson, who in 2021 warned that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the PLA to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. Xi in 2017