As the coronavirus outbreak hastens its global spread, the United States has reiterated its support for Taiwan participating in the World Health Organization (WHO).
Taiwan for years has been barred from obtaining observer-status at the WHO because of the Chinese regime’s objections. Since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, the self-ruled island has further protested its exclusion from the U.N.’s health agency, saying this was hampering global efforts to contain the disease.
“This COVID-19 outbreak only further underlines the unacceptability of Taiwan being excluded from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the World Health Assembly because the People’s Republic of China blocks every attempt to do so,” Jonathan Fritz, deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Feb. 27.
