Taipei, May 7 (CNA) The "one China principle" mentioned in an invitation for Taiwan to attend the upcoming World Health Assembly (WHA) was an unilateral statement of the World Health Organization's (WHO) stance, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said Saturday.
In a statement, the ministry stressed that Taiwan has participated in the WHA over the past several years based on an understanding that was reached between Taipei and Beijing in 1992 on different interpretations of the meaning of "one China".
WHO Director-General Margaret Chan wrote to Minister of Health and Welfare Chiang Been-huang (蔣丙煌) Friday, inviting him to attend the May 23-28 meeting in Geneva. As in the previous seven years, Taiwan has been invited to attend as an observer under the name "Chinese Taipei."
Unlike previous WHA invitations, however, the WHO mentioned the United Nations Resolution No. 2758, which was passed on October 25, 1971, recognizing the People's Republic of China (PRC) as "the only legitimate representative of China to the United Nations" and expelling the representatives of the Republic of China (Taiwan).
It also mentioned Resolution WHA 25.1, which expelled the ROC from the WHO in 1972, as well as the "one China principle" underlying the two documents, according to the MOFA.
The MOFA, however, said the WHO's statement on the "one China principle" was unilateral.
Over the past eight years, the two sides of the Taiwan Strait have interacted with each other and dealt with issues pragmatically on the basis of the "1992 consensus" of "one China, different interpretations," and those issues included Taiwan's participation in the WHA, the ministry said.
Taiwan's meaningful participation in the WHA is crucial to the health rights of all people in the country and serves to highlight the contribution of Taiwan's health care system to the international community, the ministry said.
The next WHA will open three days after President-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and her administration take office on May 20.
Tung Chen-yuan (童振源), spokesman for the incoming Cabinet of Premier-designate Lin Chuan (林全), said Saturday the new administration is maintaining close contact with the MOFA and the Ministry of Health and Welfare and will make a public statement at an appropriate time on whether Minister of Health and Welfare-designate Lin Tsou-yen (林奏延) will attend the WHA.
The mention of the "one China principle" in the WHA invitation has been widely interpreted as a challenge to Tsai and her pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
(By Tang Pei-chun, Lu Hsin-hui and Y.F. Low)
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