Tsai welcomes Tedros to visit Taiwan if he can 'withstand pressure from China'

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/04/09
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) took the high road on Thursday (April 9) by welcoming the World Health Organization (WHO) head to visit Taiwan, right after he accused the country's government of being complicit in alleged, unsubstantiated racial attacks.

During a press conference on Wednesday (April 8), WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom claimed that he had been assailed by racist attacks and death threats over the past three months. He said that some had called him a "negro" and he claimed, "Three months ago this attack came from Taiwan."

"And Taiwan, the Foreign Ministry also, they know the campaign. They didn't disassociate themselves," claimed Tedros. He went on to allege that Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) "even started criticizing me in the middle of all that insult and slur, but I didn't care. Three months."

On both her Twitter and Facebook pages, Tsai on Thursday opened by making it clear that "Taiwan opposes all forms of discrimination." Despite Tedros' unsubstantiated allegations and the continued exclusion of Taiwan from the WHO, Tsai then generously invited him to visit Taiwan to "experience for himself [to see] how committed the Taiwanese people are to engaging with the world & combating COVID-19."    [FULL  STORY]