The 73rd World Health Assembly (WHA) concluded its resumption session on November 13. The international support for Taiwan’s participation in WHA reached a new high. In addition to the governments of diplomatic allies and like-minded countries, the supports from the legislative branch of various countries is unprecedented. More than 1,700 parliamentarians and congress members from 80 strong countries in Europe, the United States, Latin America, Africa and Asia-Pacific, and a bunch of leading international medical institutions and health professional organizations have publicly supported the cause. More than 60 countries’ media outlets published nearly 3,000 articles endorsing Taiwan ‘s fundamental rights to be recognized in WHA. It fully demonstrates that the effectiveness of Taiwan's containment of COVOD-19 and its contributions to the international community by providing experience and virus-related medical items have been widely recognized by the global community.
It is regrettable that the WHA once again failed to invite Taiwan to participate due to political consideration, as a result the health and well-being of Taiwan’s 23.5 million people was compromised. Taiwan will continue to work with diplomatic allies and like-minded countries aiming to participate in WHA as an observer. Taiwan calls on the WHO to put aside political reasons to allow Taiwan to fully engage in all WHO’s meetings, mechanisms and activities to achieve the goal of "Health for all" enshrined in its constitution.
