Old WHO Stuff

A friend passed me these links to old but still insightful stuff on Taiwan's WHO entry. First up is a piece by Tkacik and Lee in National Review from 2004.....

The incident was not unnoticed in Taipei. Some Taiwanese legislators questioned why the boy was allowed to enter Taiwan when, earlier in the week, the government had asked Taiwanese businessmen who had been exposed to SARS in China not to return to Taiwan for treatment. In response, Taiwan's premier issued a statement explaining that the American government had officially requested assistance, and that the U.S. had arranged for the boy to be airlifted directly to Taiwan in a controlled environment, thus minimizing the danger of spreading the still-mysterious disease.

When SARS had first appeared, the US had airlifted a boy to Taipei and Taiwan had agreed to take him in. But when the time came for Uncle Sam to repay the favor, as Tkacik and Lee pointed out, the US didn't strongly support Taiwan into the WHO....

The second piece is from a WHO doc who describes in a must-read Dec 2006 blog entry how China's restrictions on Taiwan's WHO status work, every painful and stupid detail....

....Because the international surveillance system, co-ordinated by the WHO, is based on communications between WHO and the governments of its member states. Although the PRC government claims to be able to speak for Taiwan, it has no formal means of communicating with Taiwan and the WHO was unable to contact the Taiwanese authorities without getting permission from Beijing.

In the course of our research on these areas outside the global surveillance system we obtained a copy of a memorandum of understanding between the WHO and the PRC that set out the circumstances in which contact with Taiwan could take place. While it was an honest attempt by the WHO to make things work, the guidance was totally inappropriate for dealing with an emergency. Permission had to be sought from the Chinese contact point in Geneva 5 weeks in advance of making contact. The PRC contact point could decide which Taiwanese experts should be contacted. If Taiwanese experts were invited to technical meetings an expert of similar status should be included. Taiwanese citizens were not permitted to attend WHO meetings as members of NGO delegations. Most bizarrely, because writing “Taiwan” on an envelope (necessary if it was to reach its destination) would imply recognition of its independence in the view of the PRC, all paper communications had to be faxed.

This system was put to the test during the SARS outbreak, when e-mails from the Taiwanese authorities to the WHO went unanswered for weeks. This is a ludicrous state of affairs, not only because of the consequences in cases of emergency but also because it denies the very considerable Taiwanese expertise to the WHO.

Just another well-reasoned and restrained policy from The Force for Stability across the Strait. Apparently, in Taiwan, that Force shall be with us, always....

[Taiwan]