Wall Street Journal: U.S. Makes Diplomatic Push for Taiwan to Attend WHO Summit
“A fight over whether Taiwan can participate in a World Health Organization conference on the coronavirus pandemic later this month is escalating a bitter tug of war between the U.S. and China over leadership within the U.N. system. U.S. diplomats have been asking European allies, and other democratic states, to jointly prod the WHO to publicly encourage China to allow Taiwan to join the conference as an observer. … The push stands little chance of success, and instead serves as a test of America’s leverage in its broader political struggle with China, waged in the midst of a pandemic, for influence within U.N. agencies. Several Western nations, including France, support the idea, but their support isn’t enough to overcome objections from China, which has blocked Taiwan from sending observers to the yearly summit since 2017…” (Hinshaw/Alpert, 5/7).

Additional coverage of discussions about Taiwan’s participation in the WHO’s World Health Assembly is available from Axios, VOA, and Washington Post.