Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s team is renewing the Trump administration’s support for Taiwan’s participation in the World Health Assembly, citing the island democracy’s counter-coronavirus charity in defiance of the mainland Chinese regime.
“Through donations & sharing of expertise we’ve seen firsthand throughout the Western Hemisphere that Taiwan has been a valuable partner in the fight against COVID19,” State Department acting Assistant Secretary Julie Chung’s team wrote on Twitter. “We join countries & colleagues around the world in asking to #LetTaiwanHelp at the upcoming World Health Assembly.”
Chinese officials blocked Taiwan’s participation in the assembly in recent years due to disputes over Taipei’s posture regarding Beijing’s claim to sovereignty over the island. The emergence of the coronavirus pandemic increased political interest in its return to the intergovernmental body, but Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping stymied the effort last year, but U.S. officials are trying again, just as the crisis in India gives Taiwan another opportunity to play benefactor to a strategically vital country.
“Our first shipment of the oxygen concentrators and other supplies will leave [on a China Airlines flight] before the end of this week,” Taiwanese deputy foreign minister Miguel Tsao said this week, adding India is a “like-minded and important international partner.”
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That’s high-profile assistance amid a surge in coronavirus cases that has taxed India’s struggling hospital system to the point of requiring diversions from other industries. “Indian Oil is diverting its LNG tankers for transportation of Liquid Medical Oxygen to states,” the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas announced this week. “The first such tanker is loaded with LMO supply for Patna. IOCL to convert 29 unused LNG tankers into medical-grade oxygen carriers within next week.”
The State Department’s salute for those efforts came one day after prominent members of Congress joined an international campaign mounted by China hawks from a dozen national legislatures.
“The United States and Taiwan have a long, robust history of cooperation on global health issues, and Taiwan continues to be a beacon of democracy and transparency in the Indo-Pacific,” Idaho Sen. James Risch, the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, said Tuesday. “The WHO sidelined Taiwan for the last four meetings of the World Health Assembly. I hope that in 2021, this will not be the fifth. Let Taiwan help, and we will all be better for it.”
Taiwan has been engaging in the kind of coronavirus diplomacy that Chinese officials once hoped would build their influence in Europe.
“The health issue is a good issue for the Taiwanese, so I don’t think it’s surprising that we’ve seen Taiwan be pretty forward-leaning on health issues with India,” the American Enterprise Institute’s Zack Cooper said. “India is looking for help. And so, this is sort of a natural confluence of interests between India and Taiwan.”
Taiwanese officials have made clear their desire to increase cooperation with India and other members of the Quad — that is, Japan and Australia, in addition to the U.S. — in order to diminish the threat of a Chinese Communist invasion. India is unlikely to play a key role in such a scenario, but the political ties could prove beneficial in advance of any conflict and, even more likely, in diplomatic disputes around Taiwan’s engagement at the United Nations.
“It’s just one brick in the world,” the Heritage Foundation’s Walter Lohman said. “So, one more thing, building up a positive relationship, building up a positive image for Taiwan. As China continues to take their image into the tank in India, maybe we reach a point where Delhi will step out and do some things like that.”
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Cooper agreed that any benefits to Taiwan would redound in political rather than security assistance. “I think more diplomatic recognition and space is always a positive for Taiwan,” he said.
