Taiwan blames 'vile' China for blocking coronavirus information

Taiwan, on Tuesday, escalated its spar of words with China and blamed Beijing for its exclusion from the World Health Organisation. The island nation stated that a ‘vile’ China has prevented Taiwan from getting timely information about coronavirus, international media reported.

China's 'One Nation' theory

Taiwan is not a member of the WHO due to China’s objection. Beijing has repeatedly claimed that the island is a Chinese province and is adequately represented in the health organisation by China. On the other hand, Taiwan says that it is an independent country. 

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According to media reports, China on Monday claimed that it had shared complete information about the disease with Taiwan, adding that the outbreak communication has been ‘smooth’ between the two. Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou, speaking to international media at Taipei said that Taiwan has received limited information on the topic and that too very late. In fact, it had been receiving information from other allies such as the United States of American and Japan, she added. 

Read: Taiwan Urges China To Release All Information On New Virus

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She stated that although the virus was really serious, China is still using it’s 'One Nation’ principle to impede Taiwan from taking part in WHO’s technical meetings. She further said that the Asian giant has been rudely pressuring Taiwan and putting political considerations above human health. She added that disease has no boundaries before saying that China is putting political considerations over people’s health and safety and that, basically was, extremely ‘vile.’ Reportedly, WHO has said that Taiwan has been receiving all the information it needs. 

On Monday, China allowed the first batch of estimated 500 Taiwanese stranded in Wuhan to return home amid the lockdown of the city by the Chinese authorities. Taiwan had an earlier complaint that Beijing did not allow its citizens to fly down though it gave permission to other nations including Britain and the US.