Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office.

The World Health Organization’s decision of not inviting Taiwan to join this year’s World Health Assembly (WHA) as an observer, reflected the international consensus on the one-China principle, said Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office on May 19.

Any attempt to use the WHO as a tool to seek “Taiwan Independence” is bound to fail, as there is only one China and Taiwan is an integral part of it, Ma indicated.

Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progress Party (DPP) has itself to blame for its failure to participate in the assembly for four consecutive years, as the political foundation for Taiwan to attend WHA no longer exists since the DPP refused to recognize the one-China principle, said Ma.

The DPP had been soliciting support for Taiwan's participation in this year's WHA, by claiming there will be a "gap" in global anti-epidemic efforts if Taiwan is not able to participate.

Some countries, including the United States, had also been asking the WHO to invite Taiwan as an observer to the assembly and pushing for WHA discussion of this proposal.

From 2009 to 2016, Taiwan participated in the WHA as an observer under the name Chinese Taipei. Since 2017, however, the island has been barred from the assembly since Tsai Ing-wen of the independence-leaning DPP took office in May 2016.

Ma pointed out that the mainland has been very concerned about the health and well-being of compatriots in Taiwan, and there is no barrier for the island to obtain information on the epidemic.

In January, the Chinese mainland hosted Taiwan experts who visited Wuhan to observe epidemic containment efforts on the ground. As of May 15, the mainland has sent 152 notifications on COVID-19 to Taiwan, official data shows.

Since 2019, under the one-China principle, a total of 24 Taiwan experts in 16 groups have participated in WHO technical activities, according to Ma.