Photo: the WHO emblem

The US State Department's claim that the US  is "deeply disturbed Taiwan's information was withheld from the global health community" is not fact and is politically motivated to shift focus and blame, which does nothing to ease  the COVID-19 outbreak in the US and only undermines its credibility, Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Friday. 

What the US State Department spokesperson said has ignored the facts, turned black into white and is politically motivated to shift the focus and blame to others. It does nothing to ease the current epidemic situation in the US and is not conducive to global efforts to combat the virus, and only undermines US credibility and interests, Zhao Lijian, spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said at Friday's media briefing. Zhao said we urge the US side to respect facts and international consensus and focus on the prevention and control of its own COVID-19 epidemic.

The US government and media outlets have been criticizing the World Health Organization (WHO) for weeks, and in the latest example, the US State Department spokesperson said on Thursday that the US is "deeply disturbed Taiwan's information was withheld from the global health community, as reflected in the WHO's January 14, 2020 statement that there was no indication of human-to-human transmission." 

No one is more concerned about Taiwan compatriots' health than the Chinese central government. The mainland has shared COVID-19 information with Taiwan since the virus outbreak, and Taiwan medical experts visited Wuhan in January and exchanged views with mainland counterparts. Taiwan medical experts also expressed gratitude to the mainland, Zhao said. 

Zhao stressed that the WHO is a specialized agency of the United Nations composed of sovereign states, and Taiwan's participation in the activities of the WHO must be based on the one-China principle and through cross-Straits consultations. 

According to the arrangement reached between China and the WHO, Taiwan island could timely access WHO's information on global health emergencies and report to the WHO, and Taiwan medical experts can participate in WHO's technical meetings. 

The WHO has been actively performing its duties in an objective, impartial and scientific manner which won wide recognition and praise from the global community, Zhao said.

Zhao's remarks came after Taiwan "foreign minister" Joseph Wu's speech on Thursday which boasted of Taiwan's "success" in containing the spread of the novel coronavirus. 

"The more we can amplify Taiwan's story - our experiences in so far as successfully managing the crisis - the more difficult it is for authoritarian regimes to promote their alternative vision," Wu said at an online forum held by the Washington-based Hudson Institute.

Some netizens mocked him, saying "how could you call it success when Taiwan, other than Hong Kong, has the largest number of confirmed COVID19 cases in China?"

Chinese analysts warned that Taiwan island will suffer unbearable losses if its authorities turned it into a powder keg in the China-US confrontation for political gain. 

Global Times