Taiwan Rejects WHO Claim of Racist Campaign Against Tedros

(Bloomberg) -- Taiwan hit back at the head of the World Health Organization as a dispute over the self-ruled island’s exclusion from the body threatened to overshadow efforts to rein in the spread of the coronavirus.

Taiwan’s foreign ministry demanded an apology for what it called unnecessary and slanderous comments from WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Tedros, who is Ethiopian, had earlier accused Taiwan of being behind a racist campaign against him and Africans in general.

“Without having checked the facts, Tedros’s unprovoked and untrue accusations not only differ from reality, they have also seriously harmed our government and our people,” the ministry said in a statement Thursday. “This kind of slander is extremely irresponsible.”

President Tsai Ing-wen expressed “strong protest” against Tedros’s allegation that it was behind racist attacks and invited him to visit the island.

“Taiwan always objects discrimination in any form. We know how it feels to be discriminated against and isolated more than anyone else as we have been excluded from global organizations for years,” she said in a post on her official Facebook page. “So I’d like to invite Tedros to visit Taiwan, to see how Taiwanese commit to devote to international society despite being discriminated and isolated.”

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said later Thursday that it hopes “the Taiwan authorities will not politicize the pandemic or engage in any political maneuvering.”

‘Racial Slurs’

Responding to a question about criticism from U.S. President Donald Trump and other world leaders, Tedros said at a briefing Wednesday that Taiwan was behind a campaign against him.

“When as a community people start to insult us, that’s enough,” he said. “We cannot tolerate that. But since I don’t have any inferiority complex when I am personally affected or attacked by racial slurs, I don’t care because I am a very proud black person.”

“This attack comes from Taiwan,” he said. “The foreign ministry knows about this campaign and they didn’t disassociate themselves.”

Tedros also urged the U.S. and China to work better together or risk transforming the pandemic into a bigger crisis.

Praised Response

Taiwanese foreign minister Joseph Wu has been critical of the WHO’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and Taiwan’s exclusion from the organization, but it was unclear what campaign of racist attacks Tedros was referring to.

Taiwan’s response to the virus has garnered widespread praise from voices as diverse as the U.S. State Department, Bill Gates and Barbra Streisand. The island has so far reported 379 cases and five deaths.

While Taiwan’s government was a founding member of the United Nations, the People’s Republic of China took its seat in the body -- and all subordinate organizations such as the WHO -- in 1971. China claims the self-ruled island as part of its territory. Taiwan’s government rejects the claim, asserting it is an independent, sovereign nation.

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