This situation shows that Taiwan has been accepted as a full fledged country all over the world , though U N O denied membership to it.
by N.S.Venkataraman
While W.H.O is the wing of the U N O, there is subtle difference between the functioning style of W.H.O and expectations from it.
U N O is essentially a politically tinted organization with membership for some countries being denied in U N O due to political reasons. For example, Taiwan is not a member of U.N.O. since China claims that Taiwan is part of China and China would seriously object , if Taiwan would be given membership of U N O.
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| President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan |
Obviously, membership of U N O is being denied to some countries in view of the objections from “powerful country”.
Several decades back, Bangladesh was part of Pakistan. After the bitter war, Bangladesh declared itself to be an independent country and was admitted as member of U N O. Pakistan could not prevent Bangladesh from becoming a full fledged member of U N O since Pakistan is a “weak country”. Later on, Pakistan itself recognized Bangladesh as a matter of inevitability.
After a bitter internal war in China several decades back, the mainland China was occupied by rebels and Taiwan was split from mainland China. While present Chinese government claims that Taiwan should be part of China, the government of Taiwan claims that it has been evicted from mainland China unjustifiably and mainland China should be part of it. Which is correct in this scenario?
While Taiwan has been denied membership of U N O due to objection from mainland China, almost every country in the world has trade and business relations with Taiwan including the Chinese government. Many industries from Taiwan have invested in mainland China and Chinese government has no objection to it.
This situation shows that Taiwan has been accepted as a full fledged country all over the world , though U N O denied membership to it.
W.H.O is founded with the objective of protecting the health of the world community, covering all citizens of the world. Therefore, W.H.O should represent the interest of every member of the world community, whether the community belongs to a country admitted in U. N.O or not or even stateless persons.
For example, W.H.O is extremely concerned about the health issues of Rohingya refugees, though they are deemed to be stateless persons as of now, as they are refugees who have run out of Myanmar and staying in Bangladesh territory. without anyone knowing as to whether they would go back to Myanmar at any time or would permanently stay in Bangladesh, even without being given citizenship in Bangladesh , which mean that they should be deemed as stateless persons.
When W.H.O expresses concern about the health issues of Myanmar refugees, is it right for W.H.O to keep it’s eyes closed with regard to Taiwan ?
As a world organization, it is the responsibility of W.H.O to monitor the health of world community, W.H.O cannot deny admission to any country in the world and it should not follow the practice of U N O, which is a politically tinted organization.
W H O should not buckle under the pressure of Chinese government to keep Taiwan out of W H O. If W H O were to continue this practice, it would mean that W H O would not represent the world community in toto.
At present , Taiwan is a well advanced country with strong technology background and it is very well evident from the fact that Taiwan pointed out the impending COVID 19 crisis quite early and brought it to the attention of W.H.O. If W.H.O had listened to Taiwan’s voice and heeded to it’s warning about the COVID 19, probably , the world could have been saved from the loss of thousands of lives and serious economic slow down that is confronting the world due to COVID 19 at present.
Whatever may be the political relationship between Chinese government and Taiwan, there is no need for W.H.O to take note of it or being concerned about it.
W. H. O has the responsibility to protect the health interests of the entire world community and the citizens of Taiwan are part of the world community.
By excluding Taiwan from membership, W. H. O remains as an incomplete and flawed organization.
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