Taipei, May 21 (CNA) Taiwan's health and welfare minister has called for the country's allies to stand behind its bid to attend the upcoming session of the World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva as an observer, according to an interview by the Reuters news agency.
Chen Shih-chung told Reuters on Saturday that Taiwan hopes its allies will stand up to China's "coercion and threats" that have shut it out of the United Nations' annual WHA.
"I have to call on China to realize the traditional wisdom of Chinese culture, which is that people are won over by goodwill instead of coercion and threats. That is how a big country should present itself to the world," Chen said in the interview.
Heading a Taiwanese delegation, Chen flew to Geneva on Saturday hoping to meet with officials from countries participating in the WHA meeting while protesting Taiwan's exclusion from this year's event to China.
Taiwan had hoped to attend this year's session of the WHA -- the decision-making body of the World Health Organization (WHO) -- from May 22-31 as an observer, as it had done the past eight years, but it did not receive an invitation from the WHO because of China's opposition.
WHO Director-General Margaret Chan, a Hong Kong-born Chinese whose replacement will be elected on Tuesday, has the right to invite Taiwan as an observer, and while Chen was reluctant to criticize her for failing to do so this year, he said Taiwan is hoping her successor will do better.
The Reuters report said Chan's successor will be elected from among candidates from Pakistan, Ethiopia or Britain.
"Our expectations are high and we believe that the next candidate will do better" and that "we will give them our full support," Chen told Reuters.
"You can't afford to exclude 23 million people from the global health network," Chen said in the interview.
Taiwan wants to be at the WHA to share its experience in national health insurance, disease prevention, and know-how in areas such as hepatitis-C treatment, AIDS, organ transplants, and craniofacial treatment, Chen told Reuters.
"It is a must for all countries to cooperate with each other on the health of their citizens. And I also believe it is the responsibility of the world to make sure that Taiwan is not excluded from the global health system," he contended.
According to a notice issued by the WHA on Friday, a proposal from 11 member-states that the issue of "inviting Taiwan to participate in the WHA as an observer" be included on the agenda of the Geneva meeting has been delivered to Chan.
A steering committee will convene on May 22 to discuss whether to put it on the agenda and make a recommendation to the general assembly for it to make a final decision, a Taiwanese foreign affairs official has said.
Even if the proposal is rejected, it will be read at the general assembly and the allies can express their views, the official said.
