TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — New Zealand on Tuesday (May 12) reaffirmed its support for Taiwan's participation in the World Health Organization (WHO), despite pressure from communist China to back down.
On Monday (May 11), Beijing berated New Zealand's Foreign Minister Winston Peters for his support of Taiwan's participation as an observer in next week's session of the World Health Assembly (WHA). When questioned by the media whether the spat over Taiwan's attendance of the WHA would harm diplomatic ties between China and New Zealand, Peters expressed confidence that it would not.
In the face of China's heightened pressure on New Zealand over the matter, Peters said “We have got to stand up for ourselves," reported TVNZ. Next, asserting New Zealand's sovereign right to make foreign policy decisions, while still offering an olive branch, Peters said: “And true friendship is based on equality. It’s based on the ability in this friendship to nevertheless disagree.”
Peters pointed out that of all the countries that have been able to fight off the coronavirus, "Taiwan has been a standout society." He observed that Taiwan has only 440 cases and seven deaths, and unlike China and South Korea, "they are not going into relapse."
The foreign minister said that "From the word go, when they got a whiff of what was happening," Taiwan quickly implemented measures to keep the disease at bay. He concluded that since it was able to contain the outbreak early and fend off subsequent waves, Taiwan has a "better situation than probably any other country."
On May 5, Peters expressed his support for Taiwan's attendance at the WHO. After China's ambassador to New Zealand Wu Xi complained about the move, Peters on May 7 confirmed that New Zealand is backing Taiwan's participation and replied to Wu by simply saying: "listen to your master."
During a press conference in Beijing on Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian described Peters' statements as "wrongful commentary" which had "severely violated the 'one-China principle.'" He added that in response, China has "expressed strong opposition and lodged solemn representations to New Zealand."
From 2009 to 2016, Taiwan participated in the WHA as an observer. However, when President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) first took office in 2016, she refused to recognize the "1992 Consensus" and only acknowledged that the 1992 Taiwan-China talks were an "historical fact."
In response, China has been seeking to punish Taiwan by excluding it from international organizations, intimidating government bodies and corporations into de-listing Taiwan as a country, and stealing diplomatic allies. In 2017, China pressured member countries to exclude Taiwan from the WHA summit, and the country has been blocked from attending both WHO and WHA events since.
