On May 14, 2020, certain Indian media published an interview with Joseph Jaushieh Wu, head of the Taiwan authorities’ foreign relations department, openly advocating "Taiwan's participation in WHO". Spokesperson of Chinese Embassy in India Counselor Ji Rong made a solemn statement again refuting the wrong arguments and clarifying China’s principle and position.

Ji Rong pointed out that since the outbreak of COVID-19, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities in Taiwan have been doing all they can to make reckless political maneuvers and hype up Taiwan's participation in the World Health Organization and the World Health Assembly. Their real intention is to solicit foreign support and seek independence under the pretext of the pandemic. We are firmly opposed to that and have repeatedly clarified our position. China's position on the Taiwan region's participation in WHO activities is clear and consistent. It must be handled according to the one-China principle. However, the DPP has been stubbornly adhering to the "Taiwan independence" separatist stance, refused to acknowledge the 1992 Consensus that embodies the one-China principle, thus undermining the political foundation for the region's participation in the WHA. The DPP should bear sole responsibility for this.

Under the precondition of one-China principle, China's Central Government has made proper arrangement for the Taiwan region's participation in global health affairs, which ensures that the region can deal with local or global public health emergencies in a timely and effective manner. The Taiwan region is never excluded from the WHO global anti-epidemic system.

After the COVID-19 outbreak, Chinese Government has provided epidemic information to international community at the earliest possible time in an open, transparent and responsible manner, which offered a precious window period for the world response. On Dec 31, 2019, China informed the WHO China Country Office of cases of pneumonia of unknown cause detected in Wuhan. Starting from Jan 3, 2020, China began sending regular updates about the novel coronavirus to WHO, other countries including the United States, and China's Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan regions. China’s National Health Commission has provided timely information to the Taiwan region. As of May 6, China’s mainland had updated Taiwan on the epidemic situation 148 times. China did not cover up anything, and did not delay any efforts. The WHO has also clarified for many times that Taiwan has not "made alert", but only sought more information from the WHO after the Wuhan Health Commission issued an epidemic notification on December 31, 2019. The so-called statement that Taiwan first issued a warning but did not receive the attention from the WHO is purely groundless.

We urge the relevant Indian media take a correct stance on issues of core interests concerning China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, adhere to the one-China principle, do not provide platform for "Taiwan independence" forces, and avoid sending wrong messages to the public.