Mr. Chairman,
It is with special
feelings that I have come to Geneva for this year’s
World Health Assembly (WHA). As you know, China as
well as the whole world is now at a critical time.
We are now fighting a war against Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) to protect people’s health
and safety. The sudden outbreak of SARS is a
disaster that poses a common threat to all countries on
earth. At this very moment, as an institution
responsible for addressing world health issues, WHA should
invest its precious time in exploring such important issues
as how to fight SARS and how to protect our living
environment. That is what the people of the entire
world are expecting from us.
However, what
should not have happened unfortunately happened.
In disregard of decisions made by the General
Committee and WHAs for six consecutive years, a small number
of WHO members once again came up with a proposal on
inviting Taiwan to participate in the WHA as an observer.
I cannot but say that this is a matter of
tremendous regret. Here I solemnly state that the
Chinese Government resolutely rejects the inclusion of this
proposal into the Provisional Agenda. I also wish
to emphasize the following three points:
1. The
assertion by the Taiwan authorities and a handful of WHO
members that SARS control in Taiwan is undermined by
Taiwan’s exclusion from the WHO is totally untrue and
groundless. The Chinese people on both sides of
the Taiwan Straits are bound by blood and our hearts reach
out for each other. Since the outbreak of SARS in
Taiwan, the Chinese Central Government has been deeply
concerned about the health of Taiwan compatriots and swiftly
taken a series of measures to enhance exchanges and
cooperation across the Straits. We have provided
to our counterparts in Taiwan the information about the
status of the disease, its prevention and treatment measures
and related policies through professional medical agencies
and, in addition, we have invited Taiwan professionals to
Guangzhou and Beijing for field inspection on the prevention
and treatment of the disease. In the latter half
of April, health and medical groups and organizations of the
two sides conducted the “Symposium on the Prevention
and Control of SARS on Both Sides of the Taiwan
Straits” which was attended also by medical experts
from Taiwan. On 9 May, the two sides jointly held
a tele-video seminar on SARS with the participation of
experts from Beijing, Guangdong and Taiwan. Their
academic discussions on the prevention of the disease
yielded great results. The Chinese Center for
Disease Control and Prevention has also provided SARS test
reagents for the Taiwan disease prevention authorities. The
Red Cross Society of China has proposed to provide medical
donations to Taiwan through the Taiwanese Red Cross
Organization for the prevention and treatment of
SARS.
In the meantime, the Chinese Central
Government has agreed that the WHO dispatch experts to
Taiwan to investigate the SARS situation there and that
medical experts from Taiwan can attend a global SARS science
conference to be held by the WHO in June this year.
People on both sides of the Taiwan Straits are of
the same blood, and blood is thicker than water.
We have made it clear on many occasions that if
Taiwan needs additional information and technical assistance
from the WHO and submits their requests to the Central
Government, we will readily consider their
requests.
However, while medical experts across
the Straits are joining hands in their efforts to fight
SARS, the Taiwan authorities are using SARS as the political
ploy for their separatist activities. Under the
pretext of SARS control, they have used money and instigated
a small number of countries to join their clamouring for
their participation in the WHA. Their true motive
is not to develop health undertakings of Taiwan but to
create "two Chinas" or "one China, one
Taiwan" in the international community. Such
act of taking advantage of others' temporary difficulties to
pursue one’s own interests is unwise and totally
unacceptable morally. The political attempts of
the Taiwan authorities have all met with failure in the past
six years. This year will see the same
result.
2. The WHO is a specialized agency of
the United Nations whose membership is open only to
sovereign states. There is no legal ground
whatsoever for Taiwan’s participation in the WHA.
Resolution 2758 adopted at the 26th UN General
Assembly in 1971 and Resolution 25.1 adopted at the 25th WHA
in 1972 settled once and for all the question of
China’s representation in the United Nations and WHO
politically, legally and in procedure. Pursuant to
the Constitution of the WHO and the Rules of Procedure of
the WHA, Taiwan as a province of China is not qualified to
accede into the WHO as a full or associate member or to
participate in the WHA as an
observer.
Taiwan’s attempt to participate
in the WHO as a “health entity” is untenable.
The Constitution and any other legal documents of
the WHO have no stipulation of the so-called “health
entity”. In the fifty years’ practice
of the WHO, there has never been any case of the so-called
“health entity”.
In accordance with
the WHO Constitution, Principles Governing Relations with
NGOs and other rules, invitation to NGOs of any country to
the WHA shall be subject to the consent of the central
government of that country and be consistent with relevant
resolutions of the General Assembly and the Economic and
Social Council of the United Nations. No matter what hat
Taiwan wears, as a province of China, it obviously cannot
meet the above requirements.
I wish to
reiterate that medical and health professionals from Taiwan
are welcome to be members of the Chinese delegation to the
WHA.
3. International cooperation in the field
of health must be based on the important principle of the UN
Charter─ respect for state sovereignty and territorial
integrity. China attaches importance to
international health cooperation and practises the principle
of respect for state sovereignty and territorial integrity
in international cooperation. We hope that other
countries will do the same. To respect others is
to respect oneself. I believe that no sovereign
state in this world will allow one of its provinces or areas
to participate in a UN agency that is only open to sovereign
states. This allowed, the world would go out of
order and the international law would become meaningless.
International organizations would also be deprived
of the basis for effective performance of their functions.
It is therefore not a technical issue.
It is an issue of important principle.
For China, it is also an issue that bears on the
sentiments of 1.3 billion people.
A small
number of countries have been, year after year, raising a
question that was already solved long ago in the 70s of last
century, a question that is completely out of the scope of
deliberations of this specialized agency and totally
irrelevant to the world health and medical undertakings.
It is simply a waste of the precious resources of
the WHO and the time and energy of the overwhelming majority
of the delegates. Such an act in blatant defiance
of relevant resolutions of the UN General Assembly and the
Constitution of the WHO constitutes grave encroachment on
the sovereignty and territorial integrity of a member state.
It is of disservice to the cooperation among all
countries in the field of health and is certainly not
conducive to the sound development of the
WHO.
Mr. Chairman, A few
countries dished out Taiwan-related proposals in the General
Committee six times in a row in the past six years.
And six times, the General Committee upheld
justice and turned them down. Facts have proven
that whatever forms the proposals take, they cannot avoid
ending in failure.
We call upon all member
states of the Committee to support the position of the
Chinese delegation and hold by the righteous decisions of
the Assembly and the Committee and do not incorporate the
Taiwan-related proposal into the Provisional Agenda of the
Assembly. We are confident that the Committee will
defend justice and safeguard the dignity and legal effect of
the UN General Assembly and WHA
resolutions.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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