US slams WHO and China for excluding Taiwan from key meeting

Pompeo accuses the global agency of playing 'politics while lives are at stake'

Nikkei Asian Review
Date: May 18, 2020
By: Francesca Regaldo and Alex Fang, Nikkei staff writers

TOKYO/NEW YORK — The U.S. condemned the World Health Organization on Monday for bowing to Chinese pressure to not invite Taiwan as an observer to a key meeting this week of the institution's decision-making body.

"The United States condemns Taiwan's exclusion from the World Health Assembly," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, accusing the multilateral organization of "play[ing] politics while lives are at stake."

"WHO's Director-General Tedros [Adhanom Ghebreyesus] had every legal power and precedent to include Taiwan in WHO's proceedings" but chose to bow to Beijing's pressure, Pompeo said in a statement. "The director-general's lack of independence deprives the Assembly of Taiwan's renowned scientific expertise on pandemic disease, and further damages the WHO's credibility and effectiveness at a time when the world needs it the most."

Taiwan dropped its bid to attend the meeting as an observer earlier in the day.     [FULL  STORY]