President Tsai Ing-wen says she believes that World Health Organization head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has spoken out against Taiwan because he does not understand the country.
Tedros alleged Thursday that Taiwan was behind racially-charged verbal attacks against him online.
Tsai said Friday that the false accusation damages Taiwan’s reputation and misleads the international community. However, she says that behind the accusation is a lack of understanding of Taiwan. Tsai has invited Tedros to visit Taiwan to see its efforts to stop COVID-19 for himself.
Also on Friday, Premier Su Tseng-chang said that the bias and the lack of professionalism Tedros has demonstrated with his accusation shows that he is unfit for his position. Su also said that in the past, Taiwan has provided comprehensive medical training for Ethiopia, Tedros’ home country.
Su said that Taiwan has long been oppressed by Chinese political influence. He said that because of this, Taiwan knows firsthand the pain of being treated unfairly, and so it strives to help the rest of the world.