BEIJING\/TAIPEI, May 18 (Reuters) – China said on Monday it opposed countries providing platforms for “Taiwan independence separatist” activities, after Taiwan’s foreign minister arrived in Switzerland for events on the sidelines of a World Health Organization (WHO) \u200cmeeting.<\/p>\n
China said last week it would once again not allow Taiwan, which Beijing views as its own \u200cterritory, to take part in the WHO’s annual World Health Assembly (WHA), which takes place this week.<\/p>\n
But as in previous years, Taiwan has sent a \u200bdelegation to hold its own meetings and this year Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung has also gone, joining Health Minister Shih Chung-liang.<\/p>\n
“The Taiwan authorities’ practice of sending people around the world to wedge into conferences to grab attention is nothing more than the behaviour of petty clowns,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told reporters in Beijing.<\/p>\n
“It will only bring humiliation on themselves and \u200cis doomed to fail,” Guo said.<\/p>\n
Taiwan’s government \u2060rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims and says China has no right to represent or speak for the island internationally.<\/p>\n
Lin announced his arrival in Geneva on Facebook on Sunday, and on Monday President \u2060Lai Ching-te sent a video message to a forum Taiwan is holding in Geneva.<\/p>\n
“By joining the WHO, Taiwan could better ensure the right to health for all our people, and do even more to support the rest of the world,” Lai said.<\/p>\n
PARTICIPATION BLOCKED SINCE \u200b2017<\/p>\n
In \u200bhis current capacity Lin is not known to have previously visited \u200bnon-EU member Switzerland, which like most countries maintains \u200cformal diplomatic ties with Beijing rather than Taipei and has a free trade agreement with China.<\/p>\n
However, since becoming foreign minister in 2024, Lin has made several trips to other European countries, including Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland, the Netherlands and Italy, drawing anger in Beijing.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the Swiss foreign ministry said that it had not facilitated the visit as Taiwanese nationals holding a valid passport do not require a visa to enter the country.<\/p>\n
“Switzerland considers international cooperation and coordination \u200cin matters of public health of utmost importance as health matters \u200bknow no borders,” the spokesperson said in a statement sent to Reuters. \u200bIt added its regret that what it described as \u200ba compromise solution, reached in 2009 to allow Taiwan’s participation as an observer, could not \u200cbe continued in recent years.<\/p>\n
Taiwan attended the WHA as \u200ban observer from 2009 to \u200b2016 under the administration of then-President Ma Ying-jeou, who signed landmark trade and tourism pacts with China.<\/p>\n
But Beijing began blocking Taiwan’s participation in 2017, after then-President Tsai Ing-wen won office, for her refusal to agree to \u200bits position that both China and Taiwan \u200cwere part of “one China”.<\/p>\n
Lai has continued Tsai’s policy.<\/p>\n
“International organisations, including the WHO, must handle Taiwan-related issues in \u200baccordance with the one-China principle,” Guo said.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Liz Lee in Beijing and Ben Blanchard in Taipei; \u200bEditing by Christian Schmollinger, Kate Mayberry, Thomas Derpinghaus, William Maclean)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BEIJING\/TAIPEI, May 18 (Reuters) – China said on Monday it opposed countries providing platforms for “Taiwan independence separatist”…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69186,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7],"tags":[28189,351,36536,12131,65,36467,17,14437,36535,32359,27036],"class_list":["post-69185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-geneva","tag-beijing","tag-china","tag-china-and-taiwan","tag-foreign-minister","tag-geneva","tag-lin-chia-lung","tag-switzerland","tag-taiwan","tag-taiwan-independence","tag-world-health-assembly","tag-world-health-organization"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116608142544053374","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}