When SARS swept across Asia in 2003, it knew no borders. Taiwan sought to attend a World Health Organization (WHO) meeting charting a strategy to combat the disease, but Beijing vetoed its participation. China likewise impeded WHO-Taiwan cooperation against the backdrop of the 2004 bird flu epidemic. In a compromise the following year, China and WHO signed a memorandum agreeing that WHO would communicate any health-related matters first to Beijing, which then would convey the information to Taiwan. The arrangement undercut health. In one case, China informed Taiwan only after a ten-day delay that corn it imported may have been contaminated with a bacterial infection. Over the past decade, WHO has excluded Taiwan from over 70% of its technical meetings.
Read Full Article »
