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[THREAD - Taiwan geopolitics and WHO]
A lot of people on my feed have been sharing about Taiwan vs the WHO. Let me offer my two cents on the situation, as someone familiar enough with Taiwan's sociopolitical landscape. I discuss some of these in my Global Health undergrad class:
A lot of people on my feed have been sharing about Taiwan vs the WHO. Let me offer my two cents on the situation, as someone familiar enough with Taiwan's sociopolitical landscape. I discuss some of these in my Global Health undergrad class:
1/ 1992 Consensus overshadows cross-strait relations bet mainland China (People's Republic of China, PRC) & Taiwan (Republic of China, ROC). Gist of this complicated matter is that both recognize there is one China (PRC + ROC) but beyond that, it's up to each side what that means
2/ ROC was a United Nations founding member, and had 1 of the critical 5 veto seats in the UN Security Council. When UN was created in 1945, the Nationalists were recognized internationally as the govt of China but 4 years later was expelled by the Communists during the Civil War
3/ The civil war practically ended in 1949 with ROC's exile in Taiwan but legally speaking, both sides never reached an agreement, leading to this weird stalemate that has shaped post-Civil War China. Military conscription is still required among Taiwanese males upon reaching 20.
4/ The UN is strict with the rule that each nation state should only have one representative. Fun fact: the Philippines is a founding member of the UN in 1945 but only gained independence from the US in 1946. So there were those months when the US practically violated that rule.
5/ So from 1945 to 1971, ROC was the Chinese representative in the UN. But from 1949, PRC was effectively the government over the mainland. So in 1971, the UN formally voted to expel Taiwan and give all its seats across all UN agencies to PRC. https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/25/oct-25-1971-peoples-republic-of-china-in-taiwan-out-at-un/
6/ So ever since, Taiwan has always been placed on the sidelines of global politics. Chiang Kai Shek's son Chiang Ching Kuo led Taiwan's rapid industrialization, despite Taiwan not having formal diplomatic ties with most major countries. https://www.scmp.com/article/981433/why-taiwan-ended-one-party-rule-and-embraced-democracy
7/ Chiang Ching Kuo also lifted martial law in 1987, paving the way for democratic Taiwan and ended the one-party system of the Nationalists (Kuomintang (KMT) party). Starting 2000, power has shifted hands between two major parties - KMT and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)
8/ Modern KMT is center-right politically, and has since pivoted much closer to PRC esp during Ma Jing Yeou's administration (2008-2016). Semi-official cross-strait channels opened, signaling that Taiwan's economic future rests on better PRC relations. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/24761028.2015.11869083
9/ That all changed in 2016, when the DPP won the election under Tsai Ing Wen. DPP is center-left politically, and is supportive of Taiwanese independence. DPP's win angered PRC and has used various economic pressures to make the Tsai's first term admin deeply unpopular.
10/ It worked effectively for most of her 1st term, and Tsai was actually about to lose her own presidential primary (her challenger is now the incoming VP when her 2nd term starts in May), then her political fortunes took a full 180 because of the Hong Kong independence protests
11/ Over the years, more and more Taiwanese self-identify as Taiwanese than just Chinese ( https://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-taiwan-generation-gap-20190215-htmlstory.html), and the 2020 election became a referendum on Taiwan's future with China more than anything, especially that Tsai's KMT challenger had very pro-China views.
12/ She won her 2nd term election in a landslide, and the final months of her 1st term brought her her most favorable approval numbers yet, and that's largely because of how her admin has handled COVID-19 in Taiwan. You can read more in my other thread https://twitter.com/jasonhaw_/status/1237016027130548230
13/ Now, what about this relationship between Taiwan and the WHO? During the entirety of Ma's term, Taiwan was actually an observer at the World Health Assembly, WHO's highest body, which was really quite a feat diplomatically. https://thediplomat.com/2019/05/taiwan-picks-up-international-support-after-being-barred-from-world-health-assembly/
14/ When Tsai became president, WHO rescinded their permission because of PRC's pressure. Do not underestimate PRC's sway over the WHO. With Trump threatening to cut funding for all UN agencies since the start of his term, the next biggest assessed contributor after US is PRC...
15/ as assessed contributions are a function of a country's economy and population. During the 2016 election for Director-General, Tedros won because the African Union was united behind him (he is the first African DG after all) but he also sought PRC's support.
16/ Previously, PRC successfully campaigned for Margaret Chan to be the DG for two terms despite widespread criticism of her handling of the SARS outbreak when she was Hong Kong minister of health. And most of sub-saharan Africa are now reliant on China's economic aid.
17/ So it is hardly surprising why WHO is treating Taiwan like this. The disease might be new but this is the same old politics. Now, why is Taiwan so successful? They learned A LOT from SARS. They were also shut off from WHO's briefings then and were left to fend for themselves.
18/ When the health minister then resigned mid-outbreak, a Johns Hopkins-trained epidemiologist, Chen Chien Jen, who was then a senior official at Academia Sinica, was asked to step in. He was successful, and catapulted him to political superstar status https://www.nature.com/news/taiwan-s-sars-hero-poised-to-be-vice-president-1.19148
19/ He is Tsai's current VP, and imagine the level of institutional memory that Taiwan brings to this outbreak. Tsai's level-headness also shone through, joining the ranks of all the other awesome female leaders in the Western world. And now, Taiwan is making its way back...
20/20 by offering face masks, ventilators, and other critical medical supplies to the rest of the world. Taiwan is using this opportunity to gain its way back into global relevance. And we have a lot to learn from Taiwan if we want to see this outbreak through.
