The World Health Organization (WHO) headquarter building in Geneva, Switzerland, May 14, 2019. /CFP

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday rejected Taiwan's bid to attend its annual assembly May 21-30, excluding a proposal sent by individual WHO members to allow Taiwan to join as an observer in its official agenda.

The annual assembly in Geneva last year also denied Taiwan an invitation to the event.

The repeated refusal from WHO demonstrated that the one-China principle has won universal support from the international community, and hyping up this issue at the WHO will lead nowhere, Chen Xu, permanent representative of China to the United Nations Office at Geneva and Other International Organizations in Switzerland told China Media Group (CMG) on Monday.

He said there is only one China in the world, and Taiwan is an inalienable part of Chinese territory. Taiwan's participation in the activities of international organizations, including the WHO, must be handled per the one-China principle, which is an important principle affirmed by UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 and WHO Resolution 25.1, Chen said.

He added that before the opening of the conference, nearly 140 countries expressed to China their adherence to the one-China principle and opposition to Taiwan's participation in the WHO assembly, and nearly 100 countries expressed their understanding and support for Chinese people's opposition against "Taiwan independence" and their striving for Chinese national reunification.

He also noted that the so-called "gap" in epidemic prevention and control by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of Taiwan is a political lie and an excuse to seek "Taiwan Independence", which is doomed to fail.

According to Mao Ning, a spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, the Chinese government has made proper arrangements for the region of Taiwan to participate in global health affairs on the premise of the one-China principle. 

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the central government of China has notified Taiwan of COVID-19 cases more than 500 times, and approved 26 health experts from Taiwan to participate in the technical activities organized by the WHO in the past year, Mao said.

"The Taiwan region can timely receive and report information of health emergencies. The so-called 'gap in the international epidemic prevention system' is nonsense," said Mao.

Chen and Mao both mentioned that a few countries have intensified their efforts to use Taiwan to contain China, encouraging "Taiwan independence" separatists to make provocations in recent years. They urged these countries to return to the one-China principle and unequivocally oppose "Taiwan independence" as the Chinese government has no room to make concessions on the Taiwan question.

Source: CGTN