The United States (US) Senate passed a bill on Thursday to bolster support for Taiwan’s participation in the World Health Organization (WHO) after it was approved by a voice vote in the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations last week.
The bill states that Taiwan should not be excluded from the global health body because the COVID-19 pandemic transcends all borders. It also calls on the US government to formulate strategies to assist Taiwan in regaining its observer status at the WHO’s decision-making body, the World Health Assembly (WHA), ahead of its annual assembly from November 29 to December 1. Furthermore, the bill points out that Taiwan has contributed more than $6 billion in international medical and humanitarian aid efforts to over 80 countries since 1996 and donated millions of personal protective and testing equipment during the COVID-19 crises.
“Taiwan is an important partner to the United States, and it is critical that the administration improve its strategy to help Taiwan obtain observer status,” Jim Risch, a ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told the media.
Consequently, China, which considers Taiwan an integral part of its territory under its one-China policy, criticised the bill. Xin Qiang, a cross-Straits expert and Deputy Director of the Centre for American Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, told Chinese state-owned media house Global Times that it remains questionable whether the legislation would eventually become a law. He added that it ultimately depends on approval from the House of Representatives, and the Senate’s passage of the bill is merely a “political posture” as part of the US play of the “Taiwan card.”
Even if the bill becomes a law, it is questionable whether the WHO will invite Taiwan to the global health committee. Last year, Steven Solomon, the WHO’s Principal Legal Officer, reaffirmed that the international body recognises mainland China as the “one legitimate representative of China,” keeping with the United Nation’s (UN) policy since 1971. Solomon added that Taiwan’s attendance depends on the WHO’s 194 member states as the Organisation has “no mandate” to invite Taiwan.
China has historically claimed that Taiwan is its province and not an independent state. On this basis, it argues that only Beijing has the right to represent all of China in the UN and other international organisations, including the WHO, that limit membership to states.
The development comes only weeks after the US introduced the Taiwan Partnership Act, which will help facilitate “exchanges between senior defence officials and general officers of the US and Taiwan to improve interoperability.” It also aims to increase “Taiwan’s capability to conduct security activities, including traditional combatant commands.”