The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) of the Republic of China (Taiwan), has denounced mainland China for “blatantly”, disregarding the health security of the 23 million people of Taiwan, according to reports transmitted by the Taiwanese Embassy in Banjul.

In an unprecedented break with convention, the International Food Safety Authorities Network (INFOSAN) of the World Health Organisation (WHO), did not contact Taiwan directly with information on epidemic prevention. Instead, INFOSAN on September 12 requested China to relay to Taiwan information on baby corn exported from Thailand, which was potentially contaminated with the Shigella sonnel pathogen.

However, Taiwan only received the information after 10 days later, which endangers the health of the democratic Taiwan.

Reacting to the incident, James CF Huang, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Taiwan, said: “The same China that was caught lying to the world about the outbreak of SARS in 2003 continues to deceive the international community, by falsely claiming that Taiwan is one of its provinces, and as such, is included in its implementation of the International Health Regulations (IHR) 2005. This is dangerously far from the truth.”

“That such important information was intentionally and irresponsibly delayed for 10 days also exposes China’s claim that it would take care of Taiwanese people’s health as yet another lie. MOFA strongly condemns China for callously undermining the health security of the 23 million people of Taiwan.”

MOFA then appealed to the international community to take Taiwan’s exclusion from the IHR 2005 mechanism seriously by finding a proper solution to the gap that “Taiwan’s absence leaves in the international epidemic prevention system”. The ministry also urged the WHO to resume direct contact with Taiwan.