US support for Taiwan spot at World Health Authority ‘violates’ one-China principle: Beijing

The Chinese foreign ministry has deplored Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s call for reinstatement of Taipei’s observer status at this year’s meeting

DPP’s ‘separatist position’ means political foundation for the island’s participation ‘no longer exists’, according to the ministry’s statement

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China has opposed observer status for Taiwan at the World Health Assembly’s annual meeting since 2017 when the DPP came to power in Taipei. Photo: AFP

Published: 4:00pm, 3 May 2024Updated: 4:12pm, 15 May 2024

Beijing has slammed Washington’s support for Taipei to take part in the World Health Organization’s highest-level annual meeting, opposing the island’s observer status for the eighth time since Taiwan’s outgoing President Tsai Ing-wen took office.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken – who visited China last week – issued a statement on Wednesday to “strongly encourage” the WHO to reinstate an invitation to Taiwan to participate as an observer at this year’s World Health Assembly (WHA).

Blinken said Taiwan has “exceptional capabilities and approaches” to offer on public health and its “continued exclusion” from the forum undermines “inclusive global public health cooperation and security, which the world demands and urgently needs”.

The Chinese foreign ministry said on Thursday that it “strongly deplores and firmly opposes” Blinken’s statement, which “seriously violates the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiques”.

The ministry blamed Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for “stubbornly sticking to the separatist position of ‘Taiwan independence’, which means that the political foundation for Taiwan region’s participation in the WHA no longer exists”.

“The US statement presents this matter in a misleading way, essentially to connive at and support ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist activities,” the ministry’s statement continued.