Taiwan says it will not press for World Health Assembly participation

TAIPEI: Taiwan will not press for participation at the World Health Assembly beginning Monday, but will continue to donate medical supplies abroad and protest China's “two-faced behaviour“ that excludes it from such forums, the foreign minister said.

Joseph Wu told reporters the shortened agenda for this year’s WHA requires time be devoted to concentrating on ways to control the coronavirus pandemic.

Taiwan agreed with suggestions that the issue of its participation be discussed instead at meetings later this year once the outbreak had been better contained, Wu said at a Monday news conference.


Taiwan’s United Nations seat was handed to China in 1971 and Beijing insists the self-governing island republic it claims as its own territory has no right to diplomatic relations or membership in UN bodies.