Taiwan's Attempt to Join WHO Thwarted Again

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, May 14, 2002

Taiwan's Attempt to Join WHO Thwarted Again

The 55th Assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday turned down for the sixth time a proposal to invite Taiwan to participate in its activities as an observer.

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The 55th Assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday turned down for the sixth time a proposal to invite Taiwan to participate in its activities as an observer.

A consensus of delegates from 191 nations decided to exclude the Taiwan proposal from the agenda of the week-long annual meeting, following a veto made by a majority of the 25 members of the WHO's general affairs committee at a meeting convened before the assembly.

Since 1997 Taiwan authorities have urged a few countries to put forward the proposal to grant it observer status, and this year this attempt ended up in vain again.

Zhang Wenkang, head of the Chinese delegation and China's Health Minister, said such a proposal poses a virtual challenge to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of a member state.

This violates the basic principles of the U.N. Chapter and relevant resolutions of the U.N. General Assembly and the WHO, and constitutes an abuse of the right to raise proposals granted to WHO member states, he stressed.

"There is only one China in the world, and Taiwan is only one part of China," Zhang said, adding that "the Taiwan issue is an internal affair of the Chinese people," which should be solved by the Chinese across the Taiwan Strait and brook no interference by any foreign countries.

Zhang noted that this year the Taiwan authorities came up with a new trick of entering the WHO as a so-called "health entity" after its attempts were foiled for five consecutive years.

"However, WHO is a U.N. organization which consists of sovereign states, rather than an institution made up of the so-called entities. There has never been such a thing as 'health entity' in the 50 years of WHO's existence, " Zhang said.

He said that the aim of the Taiwan authorities and its pleaders is nothing but separating China and making "Two Chinas" or "One China, One Taiwan" through its entry of the U.N. and other international organizations.

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