When answering questions posed by journalists on the same day, Li apparently stated that China is concerned about the health rights of the 23 million people of Taiwan, and has proposed four basic positions regarding this matter. He said that although the ¡§Taiwan authorities¡¨ have not yet responded to these positions, China is still willing to make special arrangements and negotiate with the WHO Secretariat on substantive measures before the two sides of the Taiwan Strait can reach a consensus on this issue. However, Li did not further explain the contents of the so-called ¡§four basic positions¡¨.

MOFA believes that the ¡§four basic positions¡¨ that Li mentioned may resemble a statement made by China¡¦s Vice Minister of Health, Gao Qiang, at the World Health Assembly (WHA) in May 2004. If so, China still maintains that Taiwan can only send ¡§medical professionals¡¨ to participate in WHO activities, and that such personnel can only participate in the relevant ¡§technical activities¡¨ of the WHO. China is intentionally acting like a ¡§central government¡¨ and attempting to downgrade Taiwan¡¦s status to that of a ¡§local government¡¨. Such behaviour amounts to threatening the health rights of the 23 million people of Taiwan in order to advance China¡¦s goals.

China has always tended to link such issues to politics. In fact, China began to adopt measures to confuse the international community as early as last year. For instance, in October 2004, through the Hong Kong Department of Health, China invited Taiwan¡¦s Centre for Disease Control to attend the China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan International Health Regulations Meeting, attempting to create the misconception that Taiwan could participate in such meetings as a local government of China. In February 2005, the Director of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Wang Yu, invited staff of Taiwan¡¦s Centre for Disease Control and quarantine personnel to join the Chinese delegation to the Intergovernmental Working Group on the Revision of the International Health Regulations (IGWG) that the WHO held from February 21 to 26. Last month, high-ranking officials from China told Vice Chairman P. K. Chiang of the KMT, who was visiting China at that time, that: ¡§China is willing to make reasonable arrangements for medical professionals from Taiwan to participate in the technical activities of the WHO¡¨. Yet China has refused to treat Taiwan as an equal. China¡¦s statements lack sincerity and are obviously part of a wider plan to downgrade Taiwan. It is clear that China¡¦s motive is to mislead the international community and thereby reduce levels of sympathy for Taiwan, especially in regards to our exclusion from the WHO system.

MOFA stresses that the 23 million people of Taiwan have the right to enjoy the same health care as is enjoyed by people of other countries. China has no right to negotiate with the WHO Secretariat concerning the issue of Taiwan¡¦s participation in the WHO. Furthermore, any arrangement made without the approval of Taiwan¡¦s government will never be realized. MOFA calls on China to accept that if it really respects the will of the people of Taiwan, it should be open-minded, assist our participation in the WHO on an equal footing and not downgrade us. The people on either side of the Strait can only enjoy peace and prosperity when the governments on either side of the Strait stand on an equal footing and cooperate in functional international organizations, including the WHO.

In addition, MOFA specifically points out that the interactive relations between Taiwan and the WHO, which are based on mutual needs and mutual benefits, go further than ¡§Taiwan¡¦s medical professionals joining the technical exchange activities of the WHO¡¨. For instance, the WHO will soon pass the International Health Regulations (IHR). The purpose of the IHR is to regulate issues of epidemic prevention and public health that have arisen through increasingly frequent international interaction. Every year, Taiwan controls approximately 1.5 million flights passing through its flight information region; 220,000 flights taking off or landing in Taiwan; 21 million air travellers; and 50,000 internationally-serviced vessels and hundreds of millions of tons of international cargo. The huge quarantine work involved in handling such a vast amount of international traffic is all conducted under Taiwan¡¦s jurisdiction. Therefore, no other country has the ability to intervene in Taiwan¡¦s work in epidemic prevention and public health. The WHO must consult with Taiwan directly.

MOFA calls on Director-General Lee Jong-wook of the WHO to perform his duties in a neutral and professional way, and actively help resolve the issue of Taiwan¡¦s participation in the WHO and IHR. In this way, not only can the health rights of the 23 million people of Taiwan be protected, but there will also be no loophole in the work of international epidemic prevention, and the lofty goal of ¡§health for all¡¨, as enshrined in the WHO Constitution, will finally be achieved.

At the WHA in May, 2004, Gao Qiang, China¡¦s Vice Health Minister, said: ¡§We welcome Taiwan to send medical professionals to join the Chinese delegation and to participate in the WHA. Under the one-China principle, the Chinese ¡¥central government¡¦ is ready to discuss with Taiwan on how its professionals can participate in WHO related technical activities. Before reaching a consensus between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, the Chinese ¡¥central government¡¦ is ready to work with the WHO Secretariat to facilitate and promote participation by Taiwan medical professionals in WHO technical exchanges. If Taiwan needs technical assistance from WHO and submits requests to the Chinese ¡¥central government¡¦, China will readily consider them¡¨. With regard to the above-mentioned statement made by Gao, which clearly downgrades Taiwan, Ambassador Shen Lyu-shun of our Office in Geneva was instructed by MOFA to write a letter to WHO Director-General Lee Jong-wook on May 28 last year. In his letter, Shen rebutted Gao¡¦s statement point by point, and stressed that the WHO Secretariat should not degrade Taiwan when dealing with the issue of our bid to participate in the WHO.