On Thursday, after accusing the island government of leading personal attacks against him and the response of his agency to the coronavirus pandemic, Taiwan requested an apology from the head of the World Health Organization.
Previously on Wednesday, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the WHO, called for cooperation amid the coronavirus pandemic after U.S. President Donald Trump attacked the organization and threatened to slash funding.
At the press conference, he spoke about the abuse he had been exposed to since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, including ethnic remarks.
Tedros largely avoided referencing Trump by name but, after political pressure from Beijing, he named the government in Taipei that was frozen out of the World Health Organization.
Tedros told reporters in Geneva:
“Three months ago, this attack came from Taiwan,”
“They didn’t disassociate themselves. They even started criticising me in the middle of all that insult and slur, but I didn’t care,”
The remarks have sparked outrage in Taiwan, labeling the comments of Tedros as “baseless.”
Foreign ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou told reporters on Thursday:
“Our country has never encouraged the public to launch personal attacks against him or made any racially discriminatory comments,”
“Our government demands an immediate clarification and an apology from director-general Tedros over such extremely irresponsible act of slander,”
Ties between the World Health Organization and Taiwan have deteriorated dramatically since the start of the pandemic, even as health experts praised Taiwan for its response to the virus.
The Panthera Post 