TAIWAN, now in the grip of a second outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) that has infected over 8,000 people and killed nearly 700 worldwide as of May 22, had hoped to see its bid for observer status at the World Health Organization be placed on the agenda of the organization’s annual meeting now being held in Geneva.

Taiwan did not expect success this year, considering China’s full-scale campaign to keep it out of the WHO. However, Taiwan had good reason to hope that support from the United States would deliver a moral victory, attracting support from other countries and demonstrating the irrationality of its exclusion. Yet at the crucial moment, the U.S. State Department stood aside in a move that contradicted U.S. policies favoring Taiwan’s observer status at the WHO.