Taiwan has blamed China for the United Nations (U.N.)’s decision not to invite the self-ruled island — claimed by Beijing as Chinese territory — to an annual World Health Assembly (WHA) meeting later this month.
“China’s use of its one-sided political stance, and persistence in suppressing and blocking our participation in the WHA, disregards Taiwan people’s health safety rights,” the island’s Mainland Affairs Council claimed in a statement on Monday.
The U.N. acknowledges the “One China” principle, based on which Chinese sovereignty applies to Taiwan even as the island is ruled independently.
“Our government expresses its strong condemnation at this unreasonable action,” said the council — which is Taiwan’s China policy-making body — referring to the U.N. decision.
It said the exclusion of Taiwan from the WHA event for a second consecutive year showed Beijing’s lack of willingness to improve relations.
Taiwan has in the past been granted special observer status at some conferences, with Beijing’s approval.
From 2009 to 2016, Taiwan participated in WHA meetings as an observer and under the name Chinese Taipei, a special arrangement that Beijing agreed to during the rule of Taiwan’s previous China-friendly Ma Ying-jeou administration.
However, ties between the mainland and the island have deteriorated since the 2016 election of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
Unlike Taiwan’s previous administration, that of Tsai’s has not acknowledged the “One China” principle.
China’s Foreign Ministry later responded by saying that Taiwan’s self-proclaimed governing party only had itself to blame for Taipei’s exclusion because it did not abide by the “One China” principle.
“Taiwan’s inability to get an invitation completely lies with the fault of the DPP authorities,” the ministry said in a statement on Monday.
The WHA is the governing assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO).
This article has been adapted from its original source.
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