On May 22, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in Boston led a vehicle parade from Newton to Boston with the goal of campaigning for Taiwan’s inclusion in the World Health Assembly (WHA) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
Organizer Su Hong-chang said, “Despite the hot weather, we still have around 60 people spanning 16 different organizations participating today. We have about 25 vehicles in this parade.”
Su, who is also the founder of Taiwan Association for Global Health in Boston, said, “This is our first year holding such an event. Through all the North American Taiwanese business associations, today on 5/22, across several states such as Washington DC, Houston, and Orange County, the same campaign is being held simultaneously.”
On the same day, several branches of TECO held their own parades across the nation at different times. This is the first parade they held in the United States. The organizers hope to continue this annually until Taiwan is accepted into the WHA.
Su said, “I hope that through this event, and in time, we can channel international efforts beginning from North America to gain more support for Taiwan to participate in the WHA. We want everyone to know that the 24 million people of Taiwan need to be considered in global health. Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, I’m sure everyone has witnessed how well Taiwan has done.”
Despite the recent COVID-19 outbreak and increased cases in Taiwan, the WHO secretariat has worked with Taiwan on a scientific and technical basis regularly in the past year. On May 10, Taiwan was excluded by the WHO for the fifth consecutive time as a non-voting observer. On May 24, the WHA convened without inviting Taiwan. Since its exit from the United Nations following the ‘One China Policy’ in 1972, Taiwan has only participated between 2009-2016 — when cross-strait relations and collaborations were much closer during former president Ma Ying-jeou’s presidency.
Both Taiwanese and Chinese representatives have made claims that health should not be politicized. At the event on May 22 in Newton, TECO director-general Jonathan Sun said, “Taiwan’s inclusion in the WHO is a public health and human rights concern, not a political question.”
Beijing believes that Taiwan is using participation in the WHA as a method of beginning to establish independence. Chinese ministry’s spokesperson Zhao Lijian said, “We urge the DPP authorities again to stop exploiting the epidemic to incite secessionism. We also call on certain countries to stop politicizing the public health issue while using the Taiwan question to interfere in China’s internal affairs.”
In response, Taiwan’s ministry of foreign affairs spokesperson Joanne Ou went out of her way to deem Beijing’s response “a blatantly lie” that “misled the international community and continuously suppressed the health and human rights of the Taiwanese people.”
Despite the exclusion from this year’s WHA, TECO hopes to continue to campaign for Taiwan’s inclusion in the WHO. Su said, “If we don’t do this, there will be no chance. But if we do, we might somehow make an impact. While we don’t know how effective this event will be, we hope that each year will be better than the last.”
