Atlanta, GA 05/03/2022 (Elliot Wang) - It’s been a tumultuous past few years. Many have suffered great loses from this pandemic, yet South Carolina and Taiwan have managed to pass the worst of it by sticking together. While the WHO continued to bar Taiwan from participation, Taiwan independently reached out to its international friends, especially in the US. In the Southeast, Taiwan has been active in the community, working to lend aid and donating hundreds of thousands of masks to where they are most needed.
Leaders in the US have also recognized Taiwan’s accomplishments during this pandemic. Without the WHO’s support, Taiwan combatted the spread of the virus early on within its borders and was successful in minimizing death and infection rates due to COVID-19. In addition, Taiwan was able to avoid the mass lockdowns that other countries have seen. Now, while Taiwan is in the process of opening its borders back up, many of China’s people are currently living in a grim reality of isolation from its extreme COVID approach.
Taiwan’s successful measures during this pandemic make it clear that Taiwan deserves a place in the WHO. For these past two years, Taiwan has tried repeatedly to gain involvement in the WHO as an observer and even notified the WHO as early as January 2020 of the spreading virus, yet the WHO has continued to ignore Taiwan due to China’s intimidation. This exclusion hurts not only the 23.5 million people living in Taiwan but all the people of this world, who are unable to reap the benefits of what Taiwan can offer.
Now is the time to support Taiwan, so that we can save more lives together and prevent the tragedies of the past from being repeated.
Elliot Wang, Director General
Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Atlanta
