Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen must get her head out of the clouds
Until the island’s president explicitly accepts the one-China principle, Taipei can only expect further diplomatic isolation
It need not have happened. Taiwan was invited to WHA meetings from 2009 to 2015 with Beijing’s consent. That arrangement was reached under the 1992 consensus that there is only one China.
But unlike her Kuomintang predecessor Ma Ying-jeou, President Tsai Ing-wen of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party has stopped short of explicitly acknowledging the one-China principle. As a result, Beijing has severed official exchanges. And it is apparent that China put pressure on the World Health Organisation not to extend the invitation Taipei wanted, as evidenced by a comment from a foreign ministry official that Beijing was happy the WHO was sticking to the one-China policy.
The first concern must be with the question whether political obstacles to participation in WHO forums impact negatively on the health and well-being of 23 million Taiwanese, as suggested by Tsai. Given that Taiwanese health professionals continue to have unfettered WHO access at the technical group level, and the organisation can dispatch experts to the island at short notice to advise on health issues, such concerns do not loom on the horizon.