Taiwan chides China for 'shameless lies' over WHO participation issue

Taiwan has criticised China for its "shameless lies" as tensions have escalated over Beijing blocking the island from the World Health Organization (WHO).

The World Health Assembly (WHA) is set to hold its 74th annual meeting virtually from Geneva, Switzerland, from May 24 to June 1.

The Beijing government has been blocking Taiwan's representation at WHO meetings after the self-ruled democracy elected Tsai Ing-wen as Taiwan's president in 2016 and again in 2020.

Delegates from Taiwan had attended the WHA as nonvoting observers from 2009 to 2016, during a period of relatively warm ties between Beijing and Taipei.

Opposing the growing calls for Taiwan's participation as an observer at World Health Assembly (WHA), China attacked the United States on Monday for supporting Taipei's bid at the table of WHO's decision-making body.

China's foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Monday that "appropriate arrangements" have been made for Taiwan's participation in global health matters and that nobody cared more for Taiwan's people than the Chinese government.

China's foreign ministry said on Monday that "appropriate arrangements" have been made for Taiwan's participation in global health matters and that nobody cared more for Taiwan's people than the Chinese government.

Taiwan Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu criticized Hua's claims as "shameless lies."

"After what #Beijing has done to #Xinjiang, #Tibet & #HongKong, no sane person would believe it could take care of #Taiwan's health needs or otherwise," Wu wrote on Twitter yesterday.

"The #CCP regime can't speak for Taiwan as it never ruled the country for a single day. Its claim, in fact, is pure authoritarian expansionism. The truth is we're a democracy & only the freely elected government represents #Taiwan's people. @WHO, do the right thing: Let us in," he wrote.

Meanwhile, the United States called upon the WHO to invite Taiwan to participate as an observer at the upcoming annual meeting of WHA, saying there is "no reasonable justification" for Taipei's continued exclusion from the forum.

"There is no reasonable justification for Taiwan's continued exclusion from this forum, and the United States calls upon the WHO Director-General to invite Taiwan to participate as an observer at the WHA - as it has in previous years, prior to objections registered by the government of the People's Republic of China," Blinken said in a statement.

Recently, foreign ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) countries have come out in support of Taiwan's observer status in the decision-making body of the WHO.

( With inputs from ANI )