Recently, certain Dutch media published a signed article claiming that “excluding Taiwan from the World Health Organization harms global healthcare.” Such remarks disregard facts, confuse right and wrong, deliberately distort UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, and use public health issues as a pretext to clamor for so-called “Taiwan international participation.” China firmly opposes this.

As is well known, there is but one China in the world, Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory, and the Government of the People’s Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China. This is the prevailing consensus of the international community and a basic norm governing international relations. UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 resolved, once and for all, the issue of the representation of the whole of China, including Taiwan, in the United Nations from political, legal, and procedural perspectives, and made clear that there is no such issue as “two Chinas” or “one China, one Taiwan.” As a specialized agency of the United Nations, the World Health Organization must abide by UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 and World Health Assembly Resolution 25.1 and uphold the one-China principle.

It must be pointed out that the channels for the Taiwan region to participate in global health affairs are open and effective. Under the premise of the one-China principle, the Central Government of China has made proper arrangements for the participation of the Taiwan region in global health affairs. Medical and health experts from Taiwan region are able to participate in WHO technical activities under appropriate arrangements, and the Taiwan region is also able to obtain global public health information in a timely manner. Claims that “Taiwan’s exclusion has created gaps in the global epidemic prevention system” are entirely politically motivated manipulation.

The real purpose of the DPP authorities and certain politicians in hyping up the issue of so-called “Taiwan participation in the WHO” is by no means to improve global public health cooperation, but rather to seek so-called “international space” and advance “Taiwan independence” separatist activities under this pretext. The international community has long recognized the attempt by “Taiwan independence” forces to engage in political manipulation under the guise of health issues, and has for many years explicitly rejected Taiwan region’s participation in the World Health Assembly. Any attempt to challenge the one-China principle or create “two Chinas” or “one China, one Taiwan” is doomed to fail and will never succeed.