President Tsai Ing-wen says excluding Taiwan from global epidemic prevention is a violation of people’s right to health. Tsai was speaking Thursday while meeting with Randall Schriver.
The former US defense department official is the president of the Project 2049 Institute, a think tank based in Washington, DC.
Tsai said Taiwan shouldn’t be barred from entering the World Health Organization due to political factors.
She talked about the global impact of the novel coronavirus outbreak. The new coronavirus, called COVID-19, originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan last December. Taiwan has 24 confirmed infections, including one death.
“The COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, which has had a huge impact on global public health and the economy worldwide, has caught international attention. I want to emphasize that Taiwan is a member of the international community. Diseases have no boundaries. Any crevices in the [global health network] are a health rights issue and a problem for global supply chains as well," said Tsai.
Tsai said Taiwan is armed with medical care services and the experience of epidemic prevention. She said Taiwan has the ability and is willing to make more contributions to the world.