Representative Lin calls for Taiwan’s WHO inclusion amid coronavirus outbreak in letter to The Guardian
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On 6 February, Representative Lin called on the World Health Organization (WHO) to recognise that Taiwan is not a part of China and allow for Taiwan’s participation in a letter to The Guardian titled “Issues raised by coronavirus”. Representative Lin pointed out that Taiwan’s exclusion from the WHO due to pressure from China creates a loophole in global health, citing that on 21 January Taiwan’s Centre for Disease Control confirmed the first imported case and immediately reported it to the WHO. “We regret that Taiwan is the only country with a confirmed imported case that was left out of the WHO’s emergency committee meeting, because China is blocking Taiwan’s attendance in the UN health agency.”
Representative Lin stressed that the situation is a fresh reminder of the catastrophic SARS epidemic in 2002-03, at which time Taiwan suffered tremendous loss, unable to engage with the WHO directly and was forced to rely on US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials to obtain vital information from the global health body. “As the coronavirus outbreak has been declared a global health emergency, we call on the WHO to recognise that Taiwan is not part of China,” he stated, adding “It is time for the WHO to include Taiwan and its 23 million people, and stop damaging efforts to tackle the coronavirus outbreak and harming global health.”