Taiwan separated from China during the civil war in 1949. China claims sovereignty over the self-ruled islands, but concedes that it does not rule it. So this day, Taiwan is not represented in both the United Nations and the World Health Organization. So we have a global village that insofar as the two major international organizations are concerned, do not include Taiwan. The worst part is that the WHO has turned down Taiwan’s request to have at least an observer’s status in the world body. And so now, we cannot even rely on the WHO to give us an accurate report on the spread of the bird flu.
Last year, we wrote that as enshrined in its Constitution, WHO has for its objective "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health. "Needless to say, it cannot achieve its objective unless it includes all the countries in the world. To this late date, WHO has not allowed Taiwan to participate in any of its activities. Taiwan was denied membership in WHO way back in 1972. So it is not a complete world organization. In 1997, Taiwan applied to be able to participate in the World Health Assembly (WHA) as mere "observers." Even this was denied. How can a world organization arbitrarily deny a nation membership in its organization?
The WHO Constitution says, "We value every life" and "every mother and child counts." Apparently, not if they are Taiwanese. WHO is adopting a "health apartheid" policy in not recognizing the existence of Taiwan.
Taiwan has contributed to the health situation of the world and definitely does not deserve to be the only nation excluded from a world body.