China accuses Taiwan of 'venomous' attacks on WHO
April 10, 2020
China has accused Taiwan of making "venomous" and racist attacks on the World Health Organization (WHO), after the head of the world body, Tedro Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said he had been the target of racist slurs coming from the island.
China's Taiwan Affairs Office late on Thursday criticized Taiwan's ruling party, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), saying it was "unscrupulously using the virus to seek independence, venomously attacking the WHO and its responsible people, conniving with the green internet army to wantonly spread racist comments." Green is the DPP's party color.
Beijing sees Taiwan as its territory and is always quick to slam any bids by the island to gain formal independence. The self-governed island is not officially recognized as a separate country by most UN member states.
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Ignored warnings?
It is true that Taiwan has criticized the WHO, from which it is excluded because of China's objections, for not providing timely information to it on the coronavirus outbreak.
The United States, which is threatening to withhold funding for the world body, has also accused the WHO of ignoring Taiwan's warnings about China's coronavirus epidemic, saying its actions had "cost time and lives." Taiwanese Vice President Chen Chien-Jen, an epidemiologist, said Taiwan had warned the WHO on December 31 of human-to-human transmission in China but that the UN organization had failed to confirm the finding.
In the case of the US' accusations, critics say that they are part of a ploy by US President Donald Trump to distract attention from his administration's failings in combating the pandemic, which has so far killed at least 16,478 people in the country.
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False apologies?
But Taiwan has vigorously denied being behind any racism directed at the WHO chief and has said it was people in China who had been behind Twitter posts purporting to be from Taiwanese people apologizing to him.
"Falsely claiming to be Taiwanese and openly admitting to racist attacks on WHO Director-General Tedros and begging forgiveness seriously damages our country's international reputation," Taiwan's Justice Ministry said in a statement on Friday.
Tedros, who comes from Ethiopia, has so far failed to produce any concrete examples of racist slurs made against him.
Taiwan has implemented strict regulations early on to combat the coronavirus and has reported only 382 COVID-19 cases so far, despite its proximity to China, where the current pandemic began. Six people on the island have died from the illness.
tj/mm (Reuters, AFP)