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