Sally Furniss
New member
Taipei - Three decades after expelling Taiwan, the World Health Organization (WHO) has agreed to accept Taipei into its global health alert mechanism while still denying observer status to Taipei, an official said Thursday.
The Centre for Disease Control (CDC) said it has been notified by WHO that WHO will include Taiwan in the International Health Regulations (IHR), and deal with Taipei directly regarding global health alerts, instead of going through China.
'This is a positive move and we will keep in touch with WHO to see it is implemented,' CDC Director Kuo Hsu-song told reporters.
'But IHR is not the whole of WHO activities and cannot replace observer status in the World Health Assembly (WHA). We will continue our effort to become a WHA observer,' he said.
The breakthrough comes eight months after President Ma Ying-jeou, from the China-friendly Chinese Nationalist Party, took office and pledged to seek peace with China while maintaining the island's status quo.
Ma urged China to allow Taiwan to join international organizations, starting with letting Taiwan attend the annual WHO conference - WHA.
Taiwan was expelled from WHO in 1972, one year after it lost its seat in the United Nations to China, which claimed that the exiled Republic of China government in Taiwan was illegal and could not represent China.
In 1993, Taiwan launched the campaign to rejoin the UN and other UN-affiliated organizations, including WHO.
The effort has not succeeded as China insisted Taiwan is China's breakaway province and cannot join international agencies which are open only to sovereign states.
But Chinese President Hu Jintao noticed Ma's goodwill gesture and promised that Beijing would consider the Taiwan people's demands to participate in international activities.
Under WHO's arrangement, WHO will send its global public health alert to CDC directly, and involve the CDC in its discussion of prevention of epidemic diseases.
WHO will send experts to Taiwan in case of the outbreak of an epidemic, like severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) or avian influenza (bird flu).
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/n...th_Organization_to_deal_directly_with_Taiwan_
The Centre for Disease Control (CDC) said it has been notified by WHO that WHO will include Taiwan in the International Health Regulations (IHR), and deal with Taipei directly regarding global health alerts, instead of going through China.
'This is a positive move and we will keep in touch with WHO to see it is implemented,' CDC Director Kuo Hsu-song told reporters.
'But IHR is not the whole of WHO activities and cannot replace observer status in the World Health Assembly (WHA). We will continue our effort to become a WHA observer,' he said.
The breakthrough comes eight months after President Ma Ying-jeou, from the China-friendly Chinese Nationalist Party, took office and pledged to seek peace with China while maintaining the island's status quo.
Ma urged China to allow Taiwan to join international organizations, starting with letting Taiwan attend the annual WHO conference - WHA.
Taiwan was expelled from WHO in 1972, one year after it lost its seat in the United Nations to China, which claimed that the exiled Republic of China government in Taiwan was illegal and could not represent China.
In 1993, Taiwan launched the campaign to rejoin the UN and other UN-affiliated organizations, including WHO.
The effort has not succeeded as China insisted Taiwan is China's breakaway province and cannot join international agencies which are open only to sovereign states.
But Chinese President Hu Jintao noticed Ma's goodwill gesture and promised that Beijing would consider the Taiwan people's demands to participate in international activities.
Under WHO's arrangement, WHO will send its global public health alert to CDC directly, and involve the CDC in its discussion of prevention of epidemic diseases.
WHO will send experts to Taiwan in case of the outbreak of an epidemic, like severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) or avian influenza (bird flu).
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/n...th_Organization_to_deal_directly_with_Taiwan_