The 60th World Health Assembly (WHA) announced Monday that its
provisional agenda would not include a proposal to make Taiwan a
WHO member state.
Jane Halton, president of the Assembly and secretary of the
Department of Health and Aging of Australia, made this declaration
after receiving a recommendation from the 25-member General
Committee which was submitted to a roll call vote by all member
states at the plenary session.
The vote noted massive opposition to including the
Taiwan-related proposal in the agenda, the 11th consecutive time
such a rejection has occurred. .
Furthermore, in interventions following the vote, many states
reiterated their support for the one-China policy and that Taiwan,
given its status as a province of China, is in no way eligible for
WHO membership.
The WHA is the supreme decision-making body of the WHO and hosts
its annual conference in Geneva in May, gathering delegations from
all its 193 member states.
The Taiwan member state proposal, supported by a small number of
countries, ignores relevant UN resolutions and smacks of Taiwan
authorities’ desperation at becoming first a WHA observer and now a
full WHO member state. Â
Addressing Monday's conference, Chinese Minister of Health Gao
Qiang slammed the move by Taiwanese authorities, reiterating that
WHO membership is only open to sovereign states and thus not
applicable to Taiwan.
"Taiwan is an inalienable part of China. Although the
reunification of the mainland and Taiwan has yet to be achieved due
to historical reasons, the fact that the mainland and Taiwan both
belong to one China will never change," Gao said.
Gao further noted that the "Taiwan membership" proposal was not
intended to benefit the Taiwanese people but to further the cause
of full "Taiwan independence" in the international arena, with the
proposal being merely a political move by certain figures on the
island.
"This proposal disregards the UN Charter and the WHO
Constitution, violates the resolutions of the UN General Assembly
and the WHA, challenges the internationally-acknowledged One China
Principle, ridicules a decade-long WHA consensus, and offends the
member states," Gao said.
(Xinhua News Agency May 15, 2007)