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Beijing fights Taiwan WHO entry
By Willy Wo-Lap Lam, CNN Senior China Analyst
HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- Beijing has raised strong objections to international support for Taiwan's bid to join the World Health Organization as an observer. "Taiwan, a Chinese province, does not have qualifications to join WHO under any terms," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said Tuesday. Zhang was responding to reports that Japan's Health Minister Chikara Sakaguchi had indicated he would back for Taiwan's affiliation with the WHO as an observer. "No countries or individuals have the rights to invite Taiwan to join the WHO as an observer," Chinese state media quoted Zhang as saying. The WHO is set to hold its annual general meeting in Geneva next week, when membership issues may be raised. Taiwan's efforts to join the world health body have been frustrated in recent years, and Taipei has mounted a high-powered campaign this year. Twenty-one of the 25 governments that maintain diplomatic ties with Taipei have written to the United Nations in support of Taiwan's case at the WHO. Individual politicians in Japan and the U.S. have also given support to Taiwan's WHO bid. A political source in Taipei said that given the current global concern over severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Taiwan should be allowed to share its experience in fighting the virus with the WHO. He pointed out that Beijing had recently also relented by not raising objections to a team of WHO experts visiting the self-ruled island. Diplomatic analysts in Geneva said the chances for Taiwan gaining observer status were low. The analysts said, however, that Japan's support of Taiwan's observer status might harm its relations with China. Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who had just completed a tour of Japan, urged Japanese leaders during his visit to stick to Tokyo's long-standing one-China policy. Issues that bedevil Sino-Japan relations, including the visits that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi paid to the ultra-nationalist Yasukuni Shrine last year, have delayed Koizumi's trip to China. However, both Koizumi and Chinese President Hu Jintao are due to meet in St. Petersburg next month for the city's tercentenary festivities.
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