Geneva, May 21 (CNA) Three top leaders of the World Medical Association (WMA) voiced their support for Taiwan's attempt to attend the World Health Assembly (WHA) during a meeting with Health Minister Chen Chih-chung in Geneva on Sunday.
But even with the support, Chen admitted that it was "nearly impossible" for his country to get invited to this year's WHA -- the decision-making body of the World Health Organization (WHO) -- which begins its annual meeting Monday.
WMA President Ketan Desai, WMA Council Chairperson Aridis Hoven and Secretary-General Otmar Kloiber reiterated their support for Taiwan when they met with Chen, who arrived in Geneva on Saturday to speak up against Taiwan's exclusion from the meeting.
According to Democratic Progressive Party Legislator (DPP) Chiu Tai-yuan, the WMA leaders' meeting with Taiwan's health and welfare minister reflected their association's staunch support for Taiwan.
The WMA previously sent an official message to the World Health Organization (WHO) asking it to send an invitation to Taiwan to attend this year's assembly, Chiu said.
Chen appreciated the WMA's support but said that with only one day to go before the WHA conference opens, "it's nearly impossible" that Taiwan will get an invitation in time to attend the assembly as an observer, as it has over the past eight years.
Asked if he would try to enter the WHA conference hall to sit in the public gallery, Chen said he would not.
"If I were to attend, I would insist on being officially invited (as an observer)," he said, adding, however, that Taiwan's lawmakers and non-governmental organization leaders may try to get seats in the area set aside for members of the public.
China is behind the WHO's decision not to issue an invitation to Taiwan, as punishment for the DPP government's refusal to accept its "one China" principle.
"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 an interview with Reuters on Saturday.
He also urged Taiwan's allies to stand up to China's "coercion and threats" that have excluded Taiwan from the annual conference.
China considers democratically ruled Taiwan part of its territory that should eventually be unified with it, by force if necessary, and repeatedly uses its global influence to suppress Taiwan's presence in the international community.
Taiwan began receiving invitations to attend the WHA as an observer in 2009 after a Kuomintang government had taken power and agreed with Beijing under a so-called "1992 consensus" that there is only one China, with either side free to interpret what it means.
The DPP, which became the ruling party in 2016 and is less conciliatory to China, refuses to accept the "1992 consensus." It simply acknowledges Taiwan's current constitutional system based on the Republic of China Constitution.
