Taiwan responds

Taiwan responds

In his letters to The Jakarta Post (April 21 and April 22),
Chinese Embassy Counselor for Political Affairs Ma Jisheng
brazenly claimed that Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in
China was under control, it was safe to travel to China, and the
Chinese government had not concealed news about SARS.

Such barefaced statements only proved that he was still trying
to gloss over the grave situation of the SARS outbreak in China.
Owing to the uncontrollable spread of SARS and disastrous
handling of the disease, the Chinese leadership took dramatic
action on April 20 to end a cover-up over SARS by revealing
hundreds of new cases in Beijing alone, sacking its health
minister Zhang Wenkang and Beijing mayor Meng Xuenong and
canceling May Day holidays to prevent the danger of a further
spread of the disease. These facts clearly exposed the whitewash
in Ma's article.

Honesty is the best policy. Ma alleged that communication was
easy between Taiwan and China and thousands of medical exchanges
occurred every year. The fact is that China's recalcitrant
attempts to cover up the disease have not only cost the lives of
its own people but also those in other countries, and only one
Taiwan expert has been able to visit China to investigate SARS
since the outbreak of the disease. Ma iterated that Taiwan
refused to cooperate with China. The truth is that China
blatantly declined an invitation to send experts to participate
in a SARS seminar in Taiwan recently.

Ma bragged unblushingly that China was ready to help Taiwan in
the prevention of SARS. To show his hypocrisy, let me give Post
readers an account of unforgettable misery that occurred in
Taiwan. In 1998, at the time of an enterovirus outbreak, and due
to China's opposition, Taiwan could not get any help from the
World Health Organization (WHO) and was, at the crucial time,
left alone without adequate resources for the laboratory testing
of pathogenic viruses to fight the infection. As a result, 78
innocent children died of the enterovirus disease.

The case confirms that Taiwan needed to join WHO. Not
surprisingly, Ma opposed Taiwan's position. Nevertheless, I have
to point out that pursuing health and appropriate medical
treatment is a basic human right and the prevention of infectious
diseases requires cooperation from all nations. The exclusion of
Taiwan from WHO has created a loophole in the prevention of the
spread of SARS.

What's more, Taiwan seeks to join WHO as an "observer" instead
of as a "member", applying not as a state but as a "health
entity". This is with the express purpose of putting the focus on
medicine and health, without touching the sensitive issue of
"sovereignty" or "recognition". So, Taiwan's appeal for joining
WHO as an observer should be respected and granted.

DEREK HSU, Director, Information Division Taipei Economic and Trade Office,

Jakarta