The US yesterday urged the WHO to “engage directly with Taiwan public health authorities” in the fight against the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).
“For the rapidly evolving coronavirus, it is a technical imperative that WHO present visible public health data on Taiwan as an affected area and engage directly with Taiwan public health authorities on actions,” US Ambassador to the UN in Geneva Andrew Bremberg told the WHO’s executive board.
Japan and the EU appeared to support this.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Japanese Ambassador Ken Okaniwa told the forum: "We should not make a geographical vacuum by creating a situation where a specific region cannot join WHO even as an observer."
The board was meeting yesterday to discussion how to deal with health emergencies. Taiwan is not a WHO member because of China’s objections and Beijing says that Taiwan is adequately represented in the organization by China.
A counselor with the Chinese UN mission in Geneva, Qi Dahai (齊大海), took the floor to express Beijing’s “strong dissatisfaction” that some countries had raised the issue of Taiwan’s participation at the technical meeting.
There is ample cooperation between China and Taiwan on the outbreak and "we feel that the Chinese central government can say it is very sincere in protecting the health and well-being of Taiwan compatriots," Qi said.
"I would like to reiterate that Taiwan is part of China, this fact cannot be changed," he said.
"China requests that the relevant countries should respect the guidance of the chairman to strictly abide by the rules of procedure of the conference," Qi said.
“Stop hyping-up about the so-called Taiwan issue. Don’t waste our time,” he added.
The call by Bremberg and others came as the WHO pressed member countries affected by 2019-nCoV to share more information on cases, saying a shortage of details has hampered efforts to combat the outbreak.
The WHO on Tuesday said that it had received complete reports for only about 38 percent of coronavirus cases reported outside of China.
Since then, “the number of countries we’ve received comprehensive data from is improving, but not complete,” WHO Health Emergencies Program executive director Mike Ryan told a news conference in Geneva on Wednesday.
Earlier yesterday in Taipei, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) took to Twitter to criticize the WHO for repeatedly giving Taiwan “inappropriate designations.”
“@WHO, what’s wrong with you? First you called us ‘Taiwan, China,’ then you changed to ‘Taipei.’ You misreported the confirmed cases, & now you call us ‘Taipei & Environs,’” Wu wrote.
“Look! Taiwan is #Taiwan & not any part of the #PRC,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) told a news conference that the WHO’s “series of inappropriate designations” of Taiwan were “unfactual” and “absurd.”
“We expressed our solemn protest to the WHO after Taiwan’s objection with regards to the matter through its representative office in Geneva and several other channels was ignored,” she said, adding that Taiwan would continue to demand a correction.
The 16th edition of the WHO Novel Coronavirus Situation Report, issued on Wednesday, referred to Taiwan as “Taipei and environs” under a table of confirmed cases of the coronavirus reported by provinces, regions and cities in China.
The second situation report, issued on Jan. 22, referred to the nation as “Taiwan, China,” but on Jan. 23 the designation became “Taipei municipality,” then “Taipei” on Jan. 25, the ministry said.
“I’d like to ask the WHO, how many times are you going to change Taiwan’s name? These are not our correct names. Let me reiterate — our name is Taiwan, whose formal name is the Republic of China,” Ou said.
“We beseech the WHO not to put Taiwan’s information under China, creating mistake after mistake after mistake,” she said.
Ou blamed China for the WHO on Tuesday reporting that Taiwan had 13 confirmed 2019-nCoV cases, when it had just 10.
“This was incorrect information that was provided by China, which created the mistake,” she said.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a faxed statement to Reuters, said the case numbers it reported to the WHO for Taiwan all came from Taiwan’s government.
“If there are mistakes, this is the relevant authorities in the Taiwan region deliberately reporting mistakes to us," it said.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office also said in a statement yesterday that Taiwan should not “use the virus to plot independence,” and reiterated that Taiwan faced no problem with technical cooperation with the WHO.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg and CNA
This story has been updated since it was first published.
CLASH OF WORDS: While China’s foreign minister insisted the US play a constructive role with China, Rubio stressed Washington’s commitment to its allies in the region The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday affirmed and welcomed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio statements expressing the US’ “serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan” and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea, in a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart. The ministry in a news release yesterday also said that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stated many fallacies about Taiwan in the call. “We solemnly emphasize again that our country and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other, and it has been an objective fact for a long time, as well as
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
‘VERY SHALLOW’: The center of Saturday’s quake in Tainan’s Dongshan District hit at a depth of 7.7km, while yesterday’s in Nansai was at a depth of 8.1km, the CWA said Two magnitude 5.7 earthquakes that struck on Saturday night and yesterday morning were aftershocks triggered by a magnitude 6.4 quake on Tuesday last week, a seismologist said, adding that the epicenters of the aftershocks are moving westward. Saturday and yesterday’s earthquakes occurred as people were preparing for the Lunar New Year holiday this week. As of 10am yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) recorded 110 aftershocks from last week’s main earthquake, including six magnitude 5 to 6 quakes and 32 magnitude 4 to 5 tremors. Seventy-one of the earthquakes were smaller than magnitude 4. Thirty-one of the aftershocks were felt nationwide, while 79
MARITIME SECURITY: Of the 52 vessels, 15 were rated a ‘threat’ for various reasons, including the amount of time they spent loitering near subsea cables, the CGA said Taiwan has identified 52 “suspicious” Chinese-owned ships flying flags of convenience that require close monitoring if detected near the nation, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday, as the nation seeks to protect its subsea telecoms cables. The stricter regime comes after a Cameroon-flagged vessel was briefly detained by the CGA earlier this month on suspicion of damaging an international cable northeast of Taiwan. The vessel is owned by a Hong Kong-registered company with a Chinese address given for its only listed director, the CGA said previously. Taiwan fears China could sever its communication links as part of an attempt
RSS