SARS fuels Taiwan-China feud

BEIJING -- It's an annual ritual: Taiwan tries to join the World Health Organization, but China growls back -- insisting that the island it considers a Chinese province has no right to act like a sovereign government.

Under normal circumstances, other nations give way to Beijing, and Taiwan is rejected.

This year, with the WHO leading the global anti-SARS efforts and Taiwan's outbreak spreading, the island's bid has taken on special significance as the U.N. agency prepares to open a meeting of its General Assembly in Geneva on Monday.

But China refuses to bend, and there is no sign that other governments are ready to risk upsetting Beijing.

"Taiwan, as a province of China, is not entitled to join the WHO or participate in the WHO as an observer," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said last week. "We are strongly opposed to the attempt of Taiwan to join the WHO in any capacity."

Reaction to outbreak

China's stance comes as Taiwanese officials say they fear the island's SARS outbreak will worsen. As other SARS-hit areas are seeing the number of infections level off, Taiwan has been reporting growing numbers of infections. Severe acute respiratory syndrome has killed at least 40 people on Taiwan and infected at least 344.

Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian says the island's exclusion from WHO is unfair to both the agency and Taiwan's 23 million people.

"Not one country, not one area can be kept out of the global medical prevention network," Chen said in April.

Taiwan does have its supporters.

Both houses of the U.S. Congress have passed resolutions backing Taiwan's bid for observer status. President Bush has told the State Department to find ways to make that happen.

The United States on Sunday reaffirmed its support for Taiwan's bid to gain observer status, saying that would help the island fight SARS.

"It's good for all countries, small, large, developing and developed, to have as much information about this disease as quickly and currently as possible," U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said in Geneva. "That's what the observer status would give and that's why it's important for Taiwan to have it."

While supporting observer status, Thompson also said, "I want to be crystal clear, we recognize the People's Republic as China as the Country of China."

Support also has come from sources as varied as Japanese politicians and Brazil's Nurses Association.

Last week, former Taiwanese Health Department chief Twu Shiing-Jer said, "SARS is forcing many countries to consider: Is health more important, or are politics more important?"

The rivalry between Taiwan and China dates to 1949, when the two sides split amid civil war. The Chinese seat at the United Nations, initially held by Taiwan, was given to Beijing in 1972.

Since then, China has objected to any involvement by Taiwan in the WHO and other international organizations -- part of a campaign to isolate the island diplomatically and force it to accept mainland rule.

Taiwan has diplomatic recognition from only a handful of countries -- mostly small and in Africa and Latin America -- though the United States and other governments maintain extensive, informal commercial and other relations with the island.

When SARS first appeared in Taiwan, its unusual status delayed help from WHO. The island's government says the agency failed to respond to its appeals for help.

On May 2, seven weeks after Taiwan reported its first SARS case, Beijing said it would permit WHO inspectors to visit the island.

The official Xinhua News Agency quoted a Chinese Health Ministry spokesman as saying Beijing was concerned about the "health and well-being" of people in Taiwan. Taiwanese political analysts suggested that Beijing also appeared to be reaffirming its claim to speak for the island.

Peter Cordingley, spokesman for the WHO regional office in Manila, said the agency consulted with Beijing before sending a pair of experts to the island, "following the U.N. procedure."

Beijing's opposition to Taiwan's participation in WHO comes despite the communist government's acknowledgment that it bungled its own early outbreak of SARS and its promise of better international cooperation.

Taiwan also says its exclusion violates the organization's own constitution, which says health care is a fundamental right for everyone, "without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition."

The WHO constitution lets territories join as associate members with permission of their national governments -- the framework under which Hong Kong participates independently of China. The document says nothing about observers.

But Beijing insists Taiwan is not eligible for either membership or observer status because WHO is open only to sovereign states. The communist government accuses Taiwan of using SARS as a political platform.

China says it is willing to serve as a channel for Taiwan to the WHO -- even though the sides have no official contacts.

"It is clear the Taiwan authority wishes to make a political issue in the name of SARS," said Zhang, the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman. "It is doomed to failure again."