Taiwan and the World Health Organization

In 1972, however, the World Health Assembly (WHA), which governs the WHO, voted to recognise the People's Republic of China (PRC) instead, in alignment with the broader shift in the UN at the time.

The Democratic Progressive Party, on the other hand, desires to link WHA observer status with full WHO membership and found participation as a Chinese delegation unacceptable.

Having experienced the 2002–2004 SARS outbreak, Taiwan immediately adopted vigorous measures for screening, testing, contact tracing, and enforcing quarantines, in what was widely considered a successful pandemic response.

A subsequent investigation by the Guardian pointed out, however, that Taiwan's communications with the WHO never explicitly mentioned human-to-human transmission and contained the same information as a previous announcement from the health authorities in Wuhan, China.

[6][7] Due to Taiwan's successful response to the COVID-19 pandemic, its inclusion in the WHO gained international attention in 2020, with strong support from the United States, Japan, Germany and Australia.