INACTION:If Taiwan waits to be invited to the WHA as an observer, the international community might believe it has submitted to the ‘one China’ policy, Michael Tsai said

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 08, 2017
By: Chung Li-hua and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer

Taiwan should apply for WHO membership instead of waiting to be invited to the executive board’s follow-up to the World Health Assembly (WHA) in May, Taiwan Medical Professionals Alliance chairman Wu Shuh-min (吳樹民) said yesterday.

Taiwan is unlikely to be granted observer status at the assembly, the highest decisionmaking body of the WHO, Wu said, citing the nation’s exclusion from the International Civil Aviation Organization last year.

“Attending the assembly under the humiliating terms of the ‘one China’ principle would be worse than not participating at all. We should consider the failure to invite Taiwan a blessing, which gives us the focus to join the WHO under the name ‘Taiwan,’” he said.

Taiwan can be invited to the assembly by a member state, which requires ratification by the WHO; at the invitation of the organization’s director-general; or by becoming a full member following a successful application.    [FULL  STORY]