TAIPEI (TVBS News) — Taiwan has not received an invitation to the 77th World Health Assembly (WHA), set to convene in Geneva on May 27, according to Minister of Health and Welfare Hsueh Jui-yuan on Wednesday (April 24).
This would mark the eighth consecutive year that Taiwan has been excluded from the global health summit. Despite the lack of an official invitation, Hsueh said Taiwan will still send a WHA action team to Geneva for medical and health exchanges. The team may be led by the newly appointed Minister of Health and Welfare, Chiu Tai-yuan.
Taiwan has been striving to regain its place in the WHA since 1997, applying for membership or observer status under various names. However, since 2017, Taiwan has been barred from the WHA, only able to participate in local marches and unable to attend the WHA as an observer. This year could mark the eighth consecutive year of exclusion.
Taiwan was forced to withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO), a United Nations (UN) subsidiary, after leaving the UN in 1971.