Top WHO Official Cuts Feed After Journalist Asks About Country Claimed by China Bruce Aylward, team leader of the joint mission between the World Health Organization and China on COVID-19, speaks during a news conference at the WHO headquarters in Geneva on Feb. 25, 2020. (Fabrice Coffrini / AFP via Getty Images)
By Jack Davis
Published March 30, 2020 at 1:40pm
A top official with the World Health Organization has ignited a political controversy over whether Taiwan is being ignored in order to pander to China.
Taiwan, off the coast of China, is the island to which Chinese nationalists fled after losing the Chinese Civil War to Mao Zedong and the Communist Party in 1949. Relations between the two have ebbed and flowed over the years, with the current regime taking forceful exception to any recognition of Taiwan.
The small nation was ousted from the WHO at China’s instigation and has been fighting to become a member once again.
In the context of the global battle against the coronavirus, which first erupted in Wuhan, China, Radio Television Hong Kong journalist Yvonne Tong asked Bruce Aylward, a senior adviser to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, whether Taiwan’s efforts would at long last be recognized, according to Taiwan News.
Aylward first indicated he had not heard the question, then asked Tong to “move on to another one.”
When she did not, the call ended abruptly.
In a follow-up call, Aylward told Tong in answer to her question about WHO membership for Taiwan that different areas within China have “done quite a good job” in terms of combatting the virus.
The episode sparked an angry tweet Saturday from Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu.
“Wow, can’t even utter ‘Taiwan’ in the WHO? You should set politics aside in dealing with a pandemic,” Wu wrote.
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