INDEPENDENT NEWS

Cablegate: Who: Taiwan Issues at the 60th World Health

Published: Thu 10 May 2007 03:07 PM
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RR RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA
RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHGV #1163/01 1301507
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 101507Z MAY 07
FM USMISSION GENEVA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3869
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 5662
RUEHBE/AMEMBASSY BELIZE 0081
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 6628
RUEHIN/AIT TAIPEI 0516
RUEAUSA/DEPT OF HHS WASHINGTON DC
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 2222
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 GENEVA 001163
SIPDIS
SENSITIVE
SIPDIS
DEPT FOR EAP AND IO/T
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PHUM
SUBJECT: WHO: TAIWAN ISSUES AT THE 60TH WORLD HEALTH
ASSEMBLY
REF: A. SECSTATE 52367
B. SECSTATE 26497
1. Summary. Ambassador Tichenor and Japanese Ambassador
Fujisaki met April 24 with Dr. Margaret Chan,
Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), as
requested reftels, to urge Chan to improve the participation
of Taiwan's experts in the technical work of the WHO. Chan
promised to find ways to accomplish this, at a minimum by
appointing a contact in her office for Taiwan issues and by
better informing Taiwan of upcoming meetings in which they
would be interested. Ambassador Tichenor also met with the
Japanese and German ambassadors to discuss ways to support
Taiwan's meaningful participation in WHO while avoiding
political confrontations on Taiwan status issues at the World
Health Assembly. Ambassador Tichenor subsequently met with
the Chinese ambassador to continue these discussion. The
German ambassador is working with China, Taiwan officials,
and the WHO to find a solution to the political stand-off
resulting from Taiwan's decision to seek membership in the
WHO this year. Mission is not optimistic that the German
Ambassador will succeed. End summary.
2. Ambassador Tichenor and Japanese Permanent Representative
Ichiro Fujisaki, accompanied by Health Attaches of the two
Missions, met April 24 with WHO Director-General (DG)
Margaret Chan. Chan was accompanied by Dr. Bill Kean,
Executive Director of the DG's office, and Gian Luca Burci,
WHO Legal Counsel. Drawing on points in reftels, Ambassador
Tichenor stressed to Chan that while the United States does
not support membership for Taiwan in the WHO, it does support
observer status for Taiwan at the World Health Assembly and
meaningful participation by Taiwan in the organization's
technical activities. Ambassador Fujisaki said Japan's
position was exactly the same. Stressing there can be no
gaps in the universal application of the International Health
Regulations (IHRs), both ambassadors emphasized the need to
expand Taiwan's meaningful participation, and asked the DG to
appoint a contact in her office to handle Taiwan issues as
one way to improve the situation.
3. Chan agreed that implementation of the China-WHO
Memorandum of Understanding on Taiwan's participation in the
WHO, signed in 2005, could be improved, noting that both Kean
and Burci served as contact points for Taiwan. Chan conceded
the WHO did not adequately inform Taiwan about upcoming
meetings in which it might be interested and that late
responses to Taiwan's requests for participation caused
problems. Noting that Taiwan cannot be in a more favorable
position than Member States with respect to notifications of
upcoming meetings, Chan speculated that perhaps the WHO could
place such information on its website, available to all.
4. Burci identified two problem areas: that Taiwan had
sometimes requested participation in intergovernmental
meetings, which was not appropriate, and that some categories
of meetings, such as regional meetings, were only open to
certain Member States. Both ambassadors urged Chan to work
proactively to improve implementation of the MOU, which Chan
committed to do.
5. Turning to the membership issue, Chan mentioned a Chinese
proposal to permit Taiwan's participation in the IHRs,
expressing the hope that Taiwan's membership application
would not derail China's offer. She noted the German
ambassador's efforts, on behalf of the EU, to help find a
solution between the political and public health aspects of
the issue and said the EU might end its support for
meaningful participation if Taiwan continues to push its
political agenda. (Comment: FRG Deputy PermRep told Mission
Health Attache the EU wants to separate meaningful
participation from Taiwan's political efforts, but did not
link the two in the way Chan suggested, while acknowledging
there would be a pause in EU support for meaningful
participation if Taiwan pursued its political agenda this
year. End comment.)
6. Ambassador Tichenor hosted a meeting on May 1 with
Japanese Ambassador Fujisaki and German Ambassador Steiner to
discuss further steps to support Taiwan's participation in
the work of the WHO. The German Deputy PermRep and the
Japanese and U.S. health attaches also attended. After a
GENEVA 00001163 002 OF 003
wide-ranging discussion of the current situation ) both
political/status issues at the World Health Assembly (WHA)
and meaningful participation issues - the Ambassador Steiner
outlined a proposal he wished to pursue.
7. In essence, Ambassador Steiner's idea, based on the
Chinese proposal on Taiwan's participation in the
International Health Regulations (IHRs), was to have WHO
draft a new arrangement that would strip out nomenclature
references and anything dealing with Chinese prior
permission/consent, and have WHO send it to Taiwan's Center
for Disease Control as WHO,s proposal for Taiwan's inclusion
in the IHRs - a generally more positive approach, addressing
Taiwan's meaningful participation in WHO technical
activities. Ambassador Steiner recognized, of course, that
this could only be done with Chinese agreement. The group
agreed that Steiner should propose this to the Chinese
PermRep, Ambassador SHA Zukang, during an already scheduled
meeting the same day.
8. Ambassador Steiner later called Ambassador Tichenor to
report that Ambassador Sha had reacted favorably to the idea.
Mission Health Attache subsequently discussed this with the
German Deputy PermRep, who said Ambassador Sha had agreed
that WHO should draft a letter to the Taiwan CDC outlining
how Taiwan could participate in the IHRs, and that this
letter could omit nomenclature issues and any
elements. Sha asked that the letter include a
that stated everything would be done in accordance with WHO
Resolutions (clearly a reference to the China8
resolution). Sha understands that WHO,s letter would be
made public. China's agreement to this scenario was
contingent on Taiwan agreeing not to pursue either observer
status or membership at the WHA this year.
9. The next day, May 2, the German Mission informed us Sha
had backed away from his agreement of the previous day, and
would now agree only to Germany discussing the IHR
arrangement with Taiwan, saying there could be no contact
between WHO and Taiwan officials. Steiner agreed to
undertake those discussions.
10. On May 3 Ambassador Tichenor and Health Attache met with
Ambassador Sha and two of his colleagues, at Sha's request,
to discuss the Taiwan issue. Sha stressed that China wants
the U.S. to push Taiwan to accept the deal being promoted by
Ambassador Steiner. Ambassador Tichenor responded by saying
we were in favor of proposals that would improve Taiwan's
meaningful participation in WHO,s work but had some concerns
about what China really had in mind, referring particularly
to any private arrangement China would have with WHO that
placed limitations (i.e. China's consent) on Taiwan. Sha
attempted to dismiss this, but acknowledged that China could
not permit WHO to deal with Taiwan in a way that jeopardized
China's sovereignty. Sha said China was prepared to make a
public statement ) perhaps in the Chinese Health Minister's
statement to the Health Assembly ) that China would take the
necessary steps so that people in Taiwan8 were fully
covered by the Health Regulations through direct contact
between WHO and Taiwan CDC on these matters, so long as these
activities respected the One China principle and were not
used for political objectives. Sha also said China would not
object if the WHO Director-General publicly acknowledged
China's statement as something that would promote the
universal application of the Health Regulations and prevent
any gaps in their implementation.
11. Mission Health Attache met with Taiwan representative
Lyushun Shen on May 4 to discuss the idea of a Chinese
statement in the WHA Plenary followed by a statement by the
WHO DG. Shen rejected this out of hand, saying Taiwan would
not accept any public statement suggesting its participation
in the work of WHO was contingent on Chinese consent, a not
unexpected reaction. Instead, Shen proposed the WHO DG make
a statement on her own initiative, linked to a Health
Assembly agenda item on applications for membership. In
Mission's view, this is a non-starter.
12. The WHO Legal Counsel has told Mission that Belize has
requested a supplemental item on the WHA agenda related to
Taiwan's membership in WHO and attached to that request a
copy of Taiwan's formal application for membership.
GENEVA 00001163 003 OF 003
Ambassador Steiner is continuing to discuss with China,
Taiwan and WHO a possible solution, including a letter from
WHO to Taiwan CDC outlining elements for Taiwan's
participation in implementation of the International Health
Regulations, which would be transmitted after the World
Health Assembly, and a general statement in the DG's speech
to the WHA Plenary about universal application of the IHRs,
possibly referring to the participation of the people in
Taiwan in the IHRs. Mission understands Steiner is not
optimistic that his efforts will succeed.
TICHENOR
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