Taiwan faces possible Beijing squeeze after US quits WHO and other agencies

The United States’ decision to withdraw from dozens of UN and other international organisations may have dealt another blow to Taiwan’s efforts to raise its global profile amid mounting pressure from Beijing.

While Taiwanese leader William Lai Ching-te’s government has sought to play down the impact, observers have warned that Washington’s retreat could further squeeze the island’s already narrow international space.

US President Donald Trump on January 7 ordered the US to exit 66 international organisations, including 31 linked to the United Nations, saying they no longer served American interests.

These included the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development – bodies in which Taiwan has long sought observer status or some form of participation.

Before the latest order, Trump had already directed the US to withdraw from UN heritage body Unesco in July and from the World Health Organization in January last year.

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Can China claim the leadership mantle after the US quits the WHO and Paris Agreement?

The WHO is one of the UN agencies that Taiwan has most actively sought to rejoin, lobbying particularly for observer status at the World Health Assembly, the organisation’s highest decision-making body.

South China Morning Post