MAY 2011

DEMOCRACY & PROGRESS

Story of WHO scandal: mistake after mistake by
KMT administration

pate as
For many years, Taiwan tried to was not willing to accept any con- Taiwan’s Health Department in
enter the World Health Organiza- cession on Taiwan’s sovereignty selected meetings, but was unable
tion (WHO) as an observer mem- despite China’s continuous at- to receive formal invitations dur-
ber. In fact, this became a policy tempt to suppress Taiwan’s inter- ing the annual WHA meetings for
of the government since 1997, and national space. government representatives.
it was intensified after the SARS China vigorously blocked Tai- Under the DPP administration,
outbreak in 2003 when Taiwan wan’s attempt to enter the WHO policy documents issued by
was unable to gain important in- as an observer, and in 2005, MOFA at that time specifically
formation pertaining to the dis- signed an MOU between Beijing directed government officials
ease. and the WHO Secretariat that posted abroad to protest at all
The DPP administration from placed Taiwan as a province under times any designation of Taiwan
2000 to 2008 enacted a policy of China, which blocked any direct as a province of China. Under-
“meaningful participation” for contact between WHO and Tai- standing that Taiwan would have
entry into WHO, meaning that it wan. Taiwan could only partici- a hard battle ahead, the DPP ac-
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 MAY 2011

...WHO scandal
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tively engaged the collaboration of the U.S., EU, THE INTERNATIONAL HEALTH REGULA-
Japan and its diplomatic allies to speak on behalf of TIONS (2005) WITH RESPECT TO THE TAI-
Taiwan at WHO. WAN PROVINCE OF CHINA

Easy as that 1. Following the entry into force of the International

Health Regulations (2005) (“IHR (2005)”), the
It came to everyone’s surprise that just one year Permanent Mission of China has communicated
after President Ma Ying-jeou took office, Taiwan to the Director-General an arrangement to facili-
was able to participate in an UN-affiliated organiza- tate the implementation of the IHR (2005) with
tion meeting for the first time in 38 years at the respect to the Taiwan Province of China. This
World Health Assembly (WHA). IHR agreement (hereinafter “the Arrangement”)
The DPP, then at that time in opposition, raised allows certain interactions and communications
doubts whether there was an agreement between between the WHO Secretariat may undertake
President Ma Ying-jeou and Beijing, questioning if pursuant to the IHR (2005) with regard to the
Taiwan was sacrificing its own sovereignty for too Taiwan Province of China.
much a price.
Taiwan’s health minister at that time, Yeh Ching- The memo was written on September 8, 2010,
chuan, who attended the 2009 WHA, denied that and sent out by Anne Marie Worning, Executive
there was an agreement between Taiwan and China, Director, Office of the Director General, WHO on
and that Taiwan’s participation was a direct agree- September 14, 2010.
ment between Taiwan and WHO. The dates highlighted the controversy when the
However, in the Taipei Times article “WHO was DPP uncovered the memo because the reaction by
‘not involved’ in bid” (May 2, 2009), reports from President Ma Ying-jeou himself and the administra-
the Central News Agency quoted WHO Spokesman tion afterward uncovered their lies to the public.
Thomas Abraham, saying that the WHO had zero President Ma first denied knowledge of the
involvement in WHA. He also said that WHO memo, but Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Shen
Director-General Margaret Chan sent an invitation Lyushun said that MOFA had knowledge of the
to Minister Yeh after they were “notified” of the re- memo for some time.
sults of cross-strait negotiations. DPP Spokesperson Chen Chi-mai, in a press con-
ference at the DPP Headquarters on May 9, said, “If
WHO’s internal memo shows KMT’s true side President Ma Ying-jeou’s administration had
knowledge of the memo’s existence, they have been
In May of this year, DPP Legislator Kuan Bi-ling lying all this time to the people of Taiwan. If they
uncovered an internal memo that Taiwan, as a didn’t know about the memo until now, then this
“province of China” was not party to the WHO’s administration is simply incompetent.”
International Health Regulations (IHR). Although the Ma administration’s first response
was denying that Taiwan had sacrificed its sover-
Part of the memo says: eignty to participate in WHA, and that Taiwan was
participating on an “equal footing” with China, the
PROCEDURES CONCERNING AN ARRANGE- titles given for Taiwan’s health ministers on their
MENT TO FACILITATE IMPLEMENTATION OF WHA badges showed differently.

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...WHO scandal
President Ma explained that our representative in
the WHA received the title of “minister”. However,
Minister Yeh Ching-chuan was given the title of
“doctor” at the WHA in 2009 and Minister Chiu
Wen-tah was called a “professor” in this year’s
WHA. Furthermore, not only nations participate in
WHO meetings, where also NGOs and other non-
sovereign states can attend meetings where minis-
ters can also be titles of county health officials.
President Ma Ying-jeou’s blaming game
Not many days following the WHO scandal,
concerned about the media attention and their own
chances of re-election, President Ma held a press
conference on May 10, where he blamed two parties
for the WHO scandal.
First, he condemned China for isolating Taiwan
in the international arena, and called for Beijing
authorities to refrain from denigrating Taiwan in
order to move forward with cross-strait relations.
Naturally, he blamed the DPP and Chair Tsai Ing-
wen, lying to the public that the DPP had already
accepted the terminology of Taiwan, Province of
China, by having participated 18 times in meetings
at WHA from 2005. He did not leave out attacking
DPP Chair Tsai Ing-wen personally, saying that she
as a government official under the DPP administra-
tion, had been part of accepting this label for Tai-
wan.
President Ma Ying-jeou’s press conference in-
cited two strong reactions, which only made him
appear even more foolish. The May 11 reaction
from China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, through
Spokesperson Fan Liqing, was perhaps too much to
swallow for President Ma Ying-jeou.
Like speaking to children, Ms. Fan called on
Taiwan to “calm down”, which some political ana-
lysts have deciphered as a direct message to Presi-
dent Ma. Then came a statement that seemed to
provide an ultimate stab at President Ma’s admini-
MAY 2011
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stration. Ms. Fan said that Taiwan’s admission to
international organizations was given to Taiwan
compatriots as “goodwill from the mainland”. Just
recall, in 2009, Health Minister Yeh Ching-chuan
denied any dealings with China when it concerned
WHO.
From the DPP side, the DPP showed MOFA
documents during the DPP administration that ad-
dressed strategy specifically for Taiwan’s entry into
WHO. The documents stated that under no condi-
tions, Taiwan would accept entry as Taiwan, China
or Taiwan, Province of China. For these very rea-
sons, Taiwan during the 8 years of the DPP in
power was unable to gain access to WHO, and
heavily spent its energy in engaging the support of
Taiwan’s friendly countries like the U.S., EU and
Japan.
Lodge a protest, what protest?
In the May 10 press conference, President Ma
said he would order MOFA to protest against the
internal memo. Many asked what kind and how the
protests would be “lodged” by the KMT since for
more than a year, the KMT would not have acted if
the DPP had not exposed the memo.
Just before WHA was about to start in latter May,
the Ministry of Health issued a letter of protest that
they said they would give to the WHO Secretariat
when Minister Chiu Wen-ta traveled to Geneva. The
Mandarin text, released to local media, emphasized
“our country”, yet the English translation simply
stated, “I” or “me”.
At the same time, Wu Po-hsiung, KMT honorary
chairman, was meeting with Chinese President Hu
Jintao without lodging any protest, carrying on a
“good commaderie” as if no harm has been done.
If the KMT were to issue any protest, DPP
Spokesperson Chen Chi-mai said, in a press confer-
ence on May 14 that, “There is no green or blue
when it comes to foreign affairs. The DPP has ex-
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...WHO scandal
posed the WHO memo for the very reasons of
asking our government to issue an effective policy
that could prevent this type of denigration. Presi-
dent Ma, as person responsible for foreign and
military affairs, besides requesting our ministry
officials to issue protests against WHO and China,
must follow the policy of the DPP administration
in engaging American, European and Japanese
support.”
Strong protest did come, but not from the KMT
administration. The U.S., through its Secretary of
Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius
said in Geneva that, “We have made it very clear
to the WHO and I think the United States’ posi-
tion is that no organization of the UN has a right
to unilaterally determine the position of Taiwan.
“It needs to be a resolution,” continued Ms.
Sebelius, “that includes China and Taiwan in a
discussion and we would very much welcome that
road forward.”
No reflection expected
In reality, there is no one to blame except the
KMT itself for their non-transparent deals with
China, denigrating Taiwan’s status and trying to
cover it up with lies to the Taiwanese public.
The 2005 MOU between the WHO and the
PRC was a result of an agreement between
KMT’s Lian Chan and President Hu Jintao in
2005.
DPP Spokesperson Cheng Wen-tsang, at a
press conference on May 12, said that although
the so-called 92 consensus created “One China,
each with its own interpretation”, WHO’s internal
memo showed that there is no room for any inter-
pretation.
DPP Spokesperson Cheng said that under the
so-called 92 consensus and any agreements be-
tween the KMT and the CCP, there is “simply
One China Principle under a One China Frame-
work.”
MAY 2011
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Future Model?
President Ma has emphasized that his admini-
stration will adopt a “WHA model” for future par-
ticipation at international organizations.
Professor of Law at National Taiwan Univer-
sity Chiang Huang-chih, in various papers submit-
ted to the media, stressed that the Ma Administra-
tion is wrong “over and over again”.
Professor Chiang underlined that any inroads
made by Taiwan at international participation
would be “all contingent on prior agreement by
China”.
From WHO’s Intranet, it has been uncovered
that Taiwan is called “Chinese, Taipei” only dur-
ing the five days of the WHA annual assembly.
The rest of the time, Taiwan is referred as China,
Taiwan.
The WHO Intranet’s section that deals with
Member States and Associate Members of WHO
indicates:
“China, Taiwan: do not use ‘Taiwan’. This area
is considered, within the United Nations system,
as a province of China, similar documents of
World Health Assemblies to which that entity is
invited as an observer. If data for this area are to
be presented separately from those concerning
China in a list or table, they should be given im-
mediately following the data for China...”
Is this really the model that the Ma Administra-
tion should follow?
Special thanks to Former EPA Minister Dr. Win-
ston Dang for his contributions to the article.
PAGE 4

DPP Chair Tsai Ing-wen visits Former Premier Su
DPP Chair Tsai Ing-wen visited Former Premier
Su Tseng-chang on May 19 accompanied by
Secretary-General Su Chia-chuan and Legislative
Convener Ker Chien-ming, expressing her appre-
ciation to Former Premier Su during the primary
process.
Chair Tsai presented to Former Premier Su
and his entire team her highest respects, and she
said that she hoped her visit will open the start of
a close cooperation for the 2012 elections.
“The 2012 election will not only decide the
DPP’s future role, but it will also determine the
future direction of Taiwan,” said Chair Tsai. “I
strongly believe in Former Premier Su, as a par-
ticipant in Taiwan’s democracy movement and
with such a vast experience, he has wide expecta-
tions for the DPP. I hope that with this visit, we
have even greater opportunities to work together
and rely on his advice and expertise.”
Chair Tsai said that the whole country saw the
true democratic style of the DPP during the pri-
mary process, and that she especially received
many good advices from her predecessors during
the televised presentations.
MAY 2011
Former Premier Su said that the DPP, as the
largest opposition party, was able to fulfill the
expectations of the people especially during this
time when the public is dissatisfied with the bad
performance of the Ma administration. He noted
that when a political party is not performing well
in office, it is time for another one to take over.
He said that if the DPP wins the elections but is
unable to resolve the problems facing Taiwan,
replacing a political party is meaningless for
Taiwan overall. He said that therefore, the DPP
has a heavy responsibility not only in doing a
good job, but also in meeting the expectations of
the people.
Chair Tsai responded that the battle ahead, as
Former Premier Su has said, is going to be a very
important and difficult one for the DPP. She said
that in particular, facing the wealth of the KMT’s
party assets and the executive resources of the
ruling party, the DPP will need to count on even
more support from the people of Taiwan to march
ahead. She lastly said that she hoped that people
may come together in this crucial moment for
Taiwan’s democracy, in which Former Premier
Su will play an important role.
PAGE 5

DPP poll on Ma’s performance: 53.5% dissatisfaction
rate
The DPP conducted a poll from May 16 to 18
questioning the public’s views on the perform-
ance of President Ma Ying-jeou and his admini-
stration. The poll used the last year as a compari-
son in asking questions related to wealth dispar-
ity, government efficiency and Taiwan’s interna-
tional status.
When asked about president Ma Ying-jeou’s
performance rate, those expressing to be satisfied
with his performance resulted in only 39.3%
while 53.5% expressed dissatisfaction with his
performance.
Second, the poll asked the people on their
evaluation of the governing performance. There
were 43.5% of the public that said to believe that
government efficiency has decreased while
31.7% responded that they believed it has im-
proved.
In the wealth disparity issue, also using the
previous year as a comparison, there were 72.9%
of the public that said the problem of wealth dis-
parity in Taiwan was critical while 12.8% said
that there has been an improvement.
In regards to Taiwan’s international status,
there were 42% of the public that said to believe
that Taiwan’s international status has worsened
while 36.6% of the public said to believe it has
improved.
Regarding personal income, there were 45%
that said their personal income has decreased
from last year while 26.5% said that it has in-
creased, and 25.6% of the respondents said that
their personal income has remained about the
same.
In their personal expenses, there were 78.9%
that responded their personal expenses have in-
creased from last year while 10.4% responded
that they have decreased.
From deduction of personal expenses and re-
sidual income, there were 67.6% of the public
MAY 2011
that said to believe their residual income for lux-
ury and investment or saving purposes have de-
creased while 19.9% said to have increased.
Concerning the government’s control on
prices of housing and consumer goods, there
were 68.7% that said to be dissatisfied while
23.5% said to be satisfied.
Responding to figures from the Executive
Yuan which has calculated Taiwan’s economic
growth to have increased by 10%, there were
89% of the respondents that said only a small
minority of people and corporations benefited
from this growth while only 4% said to believe
the common public has benefitted.
When asked their opinion concerning the
“633” campaign promise unfulfilled by President
Ma, there were 61.9% of the respondents that
said to believe President Ma will be unable to
fulfill these promises even if he is re-elected,
while 23.4% of the respondents said to believe
that he will be able to achieve these objectives if
given four more years.
Overall, when asked about the public’s views
on the three-year performance by the govern-
ment, there were 51.3% of the public that said
to believe that the Ma administration has
failed, while 43.8% that said to believe his per-
formance has been on track.
PAGE 6

MAY 2011

President Ma’s video conference with

DEMOCRACY &
CSIS a reflection of failed US-Taiwan
PROGRESS
relations
PUBLISHED BY:
Concerning President Ma Ying-jeou’s video conference with the
Center for Strategic Studies (CSIS) on May 12, DPP Spokesperson Department of International
Cheng Wen-tsang critiqued President Ma’s “three lines of defense”, Affairs Democratic
saying that his presentation was more a reflection of his three failed Progressive Party
tests to secure Taiwan.
Spokesperson Cheng said that the KMT has used the 92 consen- 9F, No. 30, Pei-Ping East
sus to create a One China Framework where Taiwan’s sovereignty Road, Taipei, Taiwan
has entered into a crisis point. He said that when faced with China’s
denigration, President Ma has failed to insist on the sovereignty of Tel: 886-2-2392-9989 ext. 306
R.O.C. Taiwan.
In response to President Ma’s second line of defense that con-
cerns foreign affairs, Cheng said that even though the Ma admini- Fax: 886-2-2393-0342
stration has adopted a diplomatic truce policy with China, the recent
incident involving Panama where Taiwan spent 1.3 billion NT in Email: foreign@dpp.org.tw
securing this relationship, showed that China has not stopped
squeezing Taiwan’s international space. Website:
Regarding the third line of defense related to US-Taiwan rela- http://www.dpp.org.tw
tions and arms sales, Cheng said that President Ma has shown no
resolution to defend Taiwan or strengthen our military capabilities.
“From 2000 to 2008, the KMT has boycotted the arms sales
budget,” Cheng said. “Now in office, the KMT takes its sweet time DIRECTOR:
on budget execution. If they would adopt a more active attitude to- Bikhim Hsiao
wards arms sales, there would have been a clearer request and reso-
lution towards Taiwan’s defense and military equipment needs.” DEPUTY DIRECTOR:
Cheng said that the real purpose of President Ma’s CSIS video Hsieh Huai-hui
conference is to repair the current state of US-Taiwan relations and
to explain his pro-China line. However, Cheng said that this is al-
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF:
ready the third year of his administration, and President Ma is sim-
ply trying to repair his image before the election for his light treat- Michael J. Fonte
ment and neglect of US-Taiwan relations and for placing Beijing’s
relationship above that of the U.S. EDITOR:
Ping-Ya Hsu

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