China presumptuously includes Taiwan’s ports under its territorial jurisdiction in a WHO document, peremptorily dwarfing Taiwan's national status and seriously ignoring the safety of the Taiwanese people's lives and their health rights
The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on its website the list of qualified ports under the International Health Regulations (IHR), where China included some of Taiwan's ports in the list of its domestic ports, which fully revealed that the political oppression and interference that China has imposed on Taiwan's international space and sovereign status has reached an extreme level. In response to this, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has strongly expressed its dissatisfaction and condemnation.
The MAC indicated that China has constantly used political violence abusively to intensify exorbitant demands on international organizations, and to peremptorily suppress Taiwan’s international space. With regard to Taiwan’s bid to join the United Nations under the name of Taiwan in 2007, China has incessantly distorted and disseminated incorrect information regarding the political status of both sides of the Strait, in an attempt to mislead the international community and obstruct Taiwan from participating in international activities. Moreover, in non-political international professional organizations, China has also interfered in related affairs by every conceivable means with a view to suppressing Taiwan. At the General Assembly of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) in May 2007, the Chinese delegate presented a resolution that dwarfed the status of Taiwan; at sessions of the World Health Organization, which greatly involve the health rights and interests of the Taiwanese people as well as the global community, China has not only obstructed Taiwan's bid to participate in the WHO, but it has recently taken advantage of the International Health Regulations (IHR) that took effect from June 2007 to conduct a new round of political suppression against Taiwan. For example, with regard to the reporting of a food safety incident involving a batch of the contaminated baby corn exported from Thailand in September, China demanded that the WHO should not directly contact with the health authorities in Taiwan and required that Taiwan's officials should be notified via China. China's deliberate delay in notifying Taiwan's health authorities has disregarded the safety of the people's lives and their health rights. This time, the action China has taken to include Taiwan as part of its territory in an IHR document has again revealed China’s irrational and peremptory actions in incessantly resorting to all conceivable means to suppress Taiwan.
The MAC reiterated that Taiwan is an independent sovereign country and has never been a part of the People's Republic of China. China's abominable behavior of suppressing and obstructing Taiwan's international space not only seriously harms the Taiwanese people's feelings and cross-strait relations but also, most importantly, endangers the Taiwanese people’s lives and health. The MAC calls on the international community to face up to this issue and demand that the WHO adopt the necessary measures, to concretely safeguard and respect the rights and interests that the Taiwanese people deserve. The MAC indicated that the Chinese authorities have always stood in sharp opposition to the Taiwanese people and the Taiwan government. The 23 million Taiwanese people have clearly realized that China's rhetoric of “placing the hopes on the Taiwanese people” and establishing a "harmonious world" is inconsistent with their actions and is merely a two-pronged approach aimed at deceiving the international community. We demand that China immediately stop suppressing Taiwan in the international arena. Only in this way will there be a foundation for a new starting point for improving and normalizing cross-strait relations.