VZCZCXRO1392
RR RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA
RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHGV #1163/01 1301507
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 101507Z MAY 07
FM USMISSION GENEVA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3869
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 5662
RUEHBE/AMEMBASSY BELIZE 0081
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 6628
RUEHIN/AIT TAIPEI 0516
RUEAUSA/DEPT OF HHS WASHINGTON DC
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 2222

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 GENEVA 001163 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EAP AND IO/T 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PHUM
SUBJECT: WHO: TAIWAN ISSUES AT THE 60TH WORLD HEALTH 
ASSEMBLY 
 
REF: A. SECSTATE 52367 
 
     ¶B. SECSTATE 26497 
 
¶1.  Summary. Ambassador Tichenor and Japanese Ambassador 
Fujisaki met April 24 with Dr. Margaret Chan, 
Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), as 
requested reftels, to urge Chan to improve the participation 
of Taiwan's experts in the technical work of the WHO.  Chan 
promised to find ways to accomplish this, at a minimum by 
appointing a contact in her office for Taiwan issues and by 
better informing Taiwan of upcoming meetings in which they 
would be interested.  Ambassador Tichenor also met with the 
Japanese and German ambassadors to discuss ways to support 
Taiwan's meaningful participation in WHO while avoiding 
political confrontations on Taiwan status issues at the World 
Health Assembly.  Ambassador Tichenor subsequently met with 
the Chinese ambassador to continue these discussion. The 
German ambassador is working with China, Taiwan officials, 
and the WHO to find a solution to the political stand-off 
resulting from Taiwan's decision to seek membership in the 
WHO this year.  Mission is not optimistic that the German 
Ambassador will succeed. End summary. 
 
¶2.  Ambassador Tichenor and Japanese Permanent Representative 
Ichiro Fujisaki, accompanied by Health Attaches of the two 
Missions, met April 24 with WHO Director-General (DG) 
Margaret Chan.  Chan was accompanied by Dr. Bill Kean, 
Executive Director of the DG's office, and Gian Luca Burci, 
WHO Legal Counsel.  Drawing on points in reftels, Ambassador 
Tichenor stressed to Chan that while the United States does 
not support membership for Taiwan in the WHO, it does support 
observer status for Taiwan at the World Health Assembly and 
meaningful participation by Taiwan in the organization's 
technical activities.  Ambassador Fujisaki said Japan's 
position was exactly the same.  Stressing there can be no 
gaps in the universal application of the International Health 
Regulations (IHRs), both ambassadors emphasized the need to 
expand Taiwan's meaningful participation, and asked the DG to 
appoint a contact in her office to handle Taiwan issues as 
one way to improve the situation. 
 
¶3.  Chan agreed that implementation of the China-WHO 
Memorandum of Understanding on Taiwan's participation in the 
WHO, signed in 2005, could be improved, noting that both Kean 
and Burci served as contact points for Taiwan.  Chan conceded 
the WHO did not adequately inform Taiwan about upcoming 
meetings in which it might be interested and that late 
responses to Taiwan's requests for participation caused 
problems.  Noting that Taiwan cannot be in a more favorable 
position than Member States with respect to notifications of 
upcoming meetings, Chan speculated that perhaps the WHO could 
place such information on its website, available to all. 
 
¶4.  Burci identified two problem areas: that Taiwan had 
sometimes requested participation in intergovernmental 
meetings, which was not appropriate, and that some categories 
of meetings, such as regional meetings, were only open to 
certain Member States.  Both ambassadors urged Chan to work 
proactively to improve implementation of the MOU, which Chan 
committed to do. 
 
¶5.  Turning to the membership issue, Chan mentioned a Chinese 
proposal to permit Taiwan's participation in the IHRs, 
expressing the hope that Taiwan's membership application 
would not derail China's offer.  She noted the German 
ambassador's efforts, on behalf of the EU, to help find a 
solution between the political and public health aspects of 
the issue and said the EU might end its support for 
meaningful participation if Taiwan continues to push its 
political agenda. (Comment:  FRG Deputy PermRep told Mission 
Health Attache the EU wants to separate meaningful 
participation from Taiwan's political efforts, but did not 
link the two in the way Chan suggested, while acknowledging 
there would be a pause in EU support for meaningful 
participation if Taiwan pursued its political agenda this 
year.  End comment.) 
 
¶6.  Ambassador Tichenor hosted a meeting on May 1 with 
Japanese Ambassador Fujisaki and German Ambassador Steiner to 
discuss further steps to support Taiwan's participation in 
the work of the WHO. The German Deputy PermRep and the 
Japanese and U.S. health attaches also attended.  After a 
 
GENEVA 00001163  002 OF 003 
 
 
wide-ranging discussion of the current situation ) both 
political/status issues at the World Health Assembly (WHA) 
and meaningful participation issues - the Ambassador Steiner 
outlined a proposal he wished to pursue. 
 
¶7.  In essence, Ambassador Steiner's idea, based on the 
Chinese proposal on Taiwan's participation in the 
International Health Regulations (IHRs), was to have WHO 
draft a new arrangement that would strip out nomenclature 
references and anything dealing with Chinese prior 
permission/consent, and have WHO send it to Taiwan's Center 
for Disease Control as WHO,s proposal for Taiwan's inclusion 
in the IHRs -  a generally more positive approach, addressing 
Taiwan's meaningful participation in WHO technical 
activities.  Ambassador Steiner recognized, of course, that 
this could only be done with Chinese agreement.  The group 
agreed that Steiner should propose this to the Chinese 
PermRep, Ambassador SHA Zukang, during an already scheduled 
meeting the same day. 
 
¶8.  Ambassador Steiner later called Ambassador Tichenor to 
report that Ambassador Sha had reacted favorably to the idea. 
 Mission Health Attache subsequently discussed this with the 
German Deputy PermRep, who said Ambassador Sha had agreed 
that WHO should draft a letter to the Taiwan CDC outlining 
how Taiwan could participate in the IHRs, and that this 
letter could omit nomenclature issues and any &permission8 
elements.  Sha asked that the letter include a &chapeau8 
that stated everything would be done in accordance with WHO 
Resolutions (clearly a reference to the &One China8 
resolution).  Sha understands that WHO,s letter would be 
made public.  China's agreement to this scenario was 
contingent on Taiwan agreeing not to pursue either observer 
status or membership at the WHA this year. 
 
¶9.  The next day, May 2, the German Mission informed us Sha 
had backed away from his agreement of the previous day, and 
would now agree only to Germany discussing the IHR 
arrangement with Taiwan, saying there could be no contact 
between WHO and Taiwan officials.  Steiner agreed to 
undertake those discussions. 
 
¶10.  On May 3 Ambassador Tichenor and Health Attache met with 
Ambassador Sha and two of his colleagues, at Sha's request, 
to discuss the Taiwan issue.  Sha stressed that China wants 
the U.S. to push Taiwan to accept the deal being promoted by 
Ambassador Steiner.  Ambassador Tichenor responded by saying 
we were in favor of proposals that would improve Taiwan's 
meaningful participation in WHO,s work but had some concerns 
about what China really had in mind, referring particularly 
to any private arrangement China would have with WHO that 
placed limitations (i.e. China's consent) on Taiwan.  Sha 
attempted to dismiss this, but acknowledged that China could 
not permit WHO to deal with Taiwan in a way that jeopardized 
China's sovereignty.   Sha said China was prepared to make a 
public statement ) perhaps in the Chinese Health Minister's 
statement to the Health Assembly ) that China would take the 
necessary steps so that &the people in Taiwan8 were fully 
covered by the Health Regulations through direct contact 
between WHO and Taiwan CDC on these matters, so long as these 
activities respected the One China principle and were not 
used for political objectives.  Sha also said China would not 
object if the WHO Director-General publicly acknowledged 
China's statement as something that would promote the 
universal application of the Health Regulations and prevent 
any gaps in their implementation. 
 
¶11.  Mission Health Attache met with Taiwan representative 
Lyushun Shen on May 4 to discuss the idea of a Chinese 
statement in the WHA Plenary followed by a statement by the 
WHO DG.  Shen rejected this out of hand, saying Taiwan would 
not accept any public statement suggesting its participation 
in the work of WHO was contingent on Chinese consent, a not 
unexpected reaction.  Instead, Shen proposed the WHO DG make 
a statement on her own initiative, linked to a Health 
Assembly agenda item on applications for membership.  In 
Mission's view, this is a non-starter. 
 
¶12.  The WHO Legal Counsel has told Mission that Belize has 
requested a supplemental item on the WHA agenda related to 
Taiwan's membership in WHO and attached to that request a 
copy of Taiwan's formal application for membership. 
 
GENEVA 00001163  003 OF 003 
 
 
Ambassador Steiner is continuing to discuss with China, 
Taiwan and WHO a possible solution, including a letter from 
WHO to Taiwan CDC outlining elements for Taiwan's 
participation in implementation of the International Health 
Regulations, which would be transmitted after the World 
Health Assembly, and a general statement in the DG's speech 
to the WHA Plenary about universal application of the IHRs, 
possibly referring to the participation of the people in 
Taiwan in the IHRs.  Mission understands Steiner is not 
optimistic that his efforts will succeed. 
TICHENOR