(Observer Network) According to Taiwan United News Network on March 4, World Health Organization (WHO) held a flu vaccine selection meeting in Beijing on February 21. The Taiwan authorities did not receive the invitation letter until around 1 a.m. that day, and they were not too late to send personnel to attend and were absent from the meeting. This is the first time that the Taiwan authorities have been absent since they were invited to attend the conference in 2014.
Subsequently, Taiwan’s “Ministry of Foreign Affairs” and “Ministry of Health and Welfare” expressed regret and objection; but the two sides did not agree on the negotiation process of why they received the invitation on the same day.
According to the latest news from Dongsen News Cloud, "Foreign Minister" Wu Zhaoxie was asked on the 4th that "Beijing and Taipei are not far away, why can't we buy air tickets to Beijing as soon as possible", he argued that "If we need to wait, or receive a notice at the last minute before going, it will be felt that we are accepting the dwarfing of mainland China or the World Health Organization.
"Foreign Minister" Wu Zhaoxie Picture from Dongsen News Cloud
Taiwan's "Ministry of Foreign Affairs" said on the afternoon of March 3 that the Ministry of Health and Welfare has always coordinated and contacted with the Ministry of Health and Welfare on Taiwan's efforts to participate in WHO conferences, mechanisms and activities, and jointly actively promoted it. After learning that the Ministry of Health and Welfare is interested in sending personnel to the meeting, it immediately asked the "Hong Kong Office in Geneva " to apply to the WHO Secretariat, but the WHO transferred the Taiwan authorities' application to the mainland and delayed the meeting until the day of the meeting to agree to send personnel, resulting in insufficient preparation time for experts. In response, the Ministry expressed solemn dissatisfaction, and the "Office in Geneva" has also protested to the WHO Secretariat.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also claimed that only Taiwan was allowed to be held. Only the authorities can properly safeguard the health and well-being of 23 million people. The WHO continues to exclude the Taiwan authorities based on political considerations, which seriously violates the health and human rights of the Taiwanese people, and may cause loopholes in the global epidemic prevention network and endanger the health of all human beings. It also claims that the WHO should stick to a professional position, resist political pressure, and accept the normal participation of the Taiwan authorities as soon as possible.
However, an official from the "Ministry of Health and Welfare Disease Management Office" said in an interview on the 3rd that the agency decided to send members of the virus experiment team to the meeting as early as December last year and submitted the list to the "Ministry of Foreign Affairs", but has not received a notice from the "Ministry of Foreign Affairs" to leave the meeting. Although there have been cases where experts received invitations after getting off the plane in the past. However, this year, the invitation was received until the early morning of the meeting, which was the latest in history, so there was no time to prepare for the meeting.
"Disease Administration" officials also pointed out that the situation in previous years was almost the case. confirmed that it could attend but had not received an invitation letter yet. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs notified the deputies to leave first.
"Disease Administration" stated that the WHO held a vaccine meeting in February and August every year to discuss the trend of influenza in the northern hemisphere and the southern hemisphere in each place and vaccine selection. This meeting is not a high-level meeting of the WHO. The participants are all experts in flu epidemic prevention, not political Senior health officials of the government. Taiwan has sent experts to attend the meeting since 2014. The first three days of the influenza vaccine selection meeting were closed-door meetings to discuss vaccine selection and the world epidemic. In previous years, Taiwan authorities were invited to attend the public meeting after the closed-door meeting. The details of the discussion and the results of the selection in the closed-door meeting will be announced on the same day.
In August last year, Li Bingying, the attending physician of the pediatric department of Taiwan University who attended the Southern Hemisphere vaccine meeting, said that not all countries and regions sent personnel to attend the public meeting. He found at the scene that there were few official epidemic prevention experts and most representatives from pharmaceutical factories.
According to the latest news from Dongsen News Cloud, Wu Zhaoxie was asked at the "Legislative Yuan Diplomacy and National Defense Committee" on the 4th.DPP legislator Chen Manli asked, "Beijing is not far from Taipei, why can't we buy a plane ticket to Beijing as soon as possible? Where are the difficulties or problems?"
Wu Zhaoxie actually replied, "This is a matter of principle. Why do experts need to agree to the meeting with mainland China?"
He defended that it should be applied to participate through the World Health Organization. If everything has to be agreed to by the mainland, it is impossible to accept it; in addition, why should the Taiwan authorities attend the World Health Organization meeting, and they must wait until the last moment to know, and they cannot know and prepare in advance? "If we need to wait, buy air tickets and wait there, or receive a notice at the last minute before going, it will be felt that we are accepting the degradation of mainland China or the World Health Organization."
"China Times Electronic News" said on the 3rd that Taiwan has been invited to attend the conference since 2014, and it was held in Beijing at that time. The notice of the vaccine selection meeting in the next few years was the day before the meeting, and it was held in European and American countries. The Taiwan authorities found ways to inquire about the news in advance and sent personnel to "wait for the notice", but this year, due to cross-strait relations, they were unable to work in advance, so they had to be forced to absent.
However, there are many pro-green media on the island claiming that the mainland is "technical" to block the Taiwan authorities from attending the meeting.
Since the Democratic Progressive Party government came to power, the Tsai Ing-wen administration has always refused to recognize "11 Consensus ", which has led to the loss of the foundation for Taiwan to participate in international conferences; but the Tsai Ing-wen administration has always used the excuse of mainland suppression and repeatedly complained about foreign complaints.
Since Taiwan was unable to participate in the annual World Health Assembly as an observer in 2017, the Tsai Ing-wen authorities tried to win over the United States, "friendly countries" and others to "speak out" for themselves, calling for Taiwan to return to the World Health Assembly. In January this year, Taiwan's "Health and Welfare Minister" Chen Shizhong said that the U.S. House of Representatives lawmakers passed a proposal to support Taiwan's return to the World Health Organization, which is expected to be voted on the Senate agenda. But in fact, the bill was passed in the House of Representatives last year, but it failed to be placed on the voting agenda because of the compact Senate agenda. After the establishment of the new US Congress, all bills that have not been passed and taken into effect by the Senate and the House of Representatives must be re-proposed.
After the Taiwan authorities were denied attending the World Health Assembly last year, Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Ma Xiaoguang pointed out in his response that from 2009 to 2016, under the one-China principle, under the background of the recognition of the "1992 Consensus" and the peaceful development of cross-strait relations, through cross-strait consultations, Taiwan was invited to participate in the World Health Assembly as an observer for eight consecutive years as an observer. However, after the DPP authorities came to power, Taiwan can no longer participate in the WHO Conference, and this reason is well known. Despite this, after the arrangements reached with the World Health Organization, Taiwan can obtain information in the fields of global health and epidemic prevention in a timely and effective manner, and Taiwanese experts can also participate in relevant WHO technical meetings and activities.
Ma Xiaoguang also introduced that according to incomplete statistics, from 2013 to 2017, Taiwan sent a total of 58 people to attend 34 World Health Organization technical meetings. In 2009, 2013, 2014 and 2017, Taiwan reported a total of 24 confirmed cases of H1N1 influenza to the WHO and 5 cases of H7N9 avian influenza.
