AIT DEMARCHES TAIWAN ON WHO

C O N F I D E N T I A L AIT TAIPEI 000783 SIPDIS SIPDIS GENEVA FOR DHOHMAN; BEIJING FOR DSELIGSOHN E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/09/2012 TAGS: TBIO PREL WHO CH TW SUBJECT: AIT DEMARCHES TAIWAN ON WHO REF: A. STATE 46031 ¶B. TAIPEI 0719 Classified By: Acting Director Robert S. Wang for reasons 1.4 B/D ¶1. (C) SUMMARY. AIT Acting Director presented Ref A demarche conveying USG reaction to Taiwan's plan to pursue full membership in WHO to Presidential Secretary-General Chiou I-jen Chiou on April 9. Chiou responded by citing Taiwan's frustrations over ten years of non-progress in Taiwan's quest for WHO observership as the primary reason for this decision to go for full membership. He underscored, however, that Taiwan does not want to "jeopardize" its relations with the U.S. and has no intention of changing its official name. ADIR urged Taiwan to reconsider its decision to apply for full membership and to adopt a course the U.S. can support. Chiou promised to relay the message to the President. END SUMMARY ¶2. (C) AIT Acting Director Robert Wang met with Presidential Secretary General Chiou I-jen on April 9 to deliver Ref A SIPDIS demarche on Taiwan's proposal to apply for full membership in the World Health Organization (WHO) under the name "Taiwan" this week. ADIR emphasized that the demarche is the product of high-level interagency review. Chiou listened soberly as ADIR listed U.S. objections to Taiwan intention to apply WHO membership under the name "Taiwan." (Note: Chiou indicated in a one-on-one afterwards that he was not very surprised by USG reaction. He said that this was a personal decision made by President Chen just in the past week. ) ¶3. (C) Chiou responded to the demarche with two main points. First, the Taiwan authorities, he told ADIR, have no intention of changing the official name of Taiwan (i.e. "Republic of China"). Second, Taiwan authorities were deeply frustrated by the failure of its strategy of trying to increase Taiwan's participation in the WHO over the past ten years. Therefore, Taiwan had decided to pursue full a membership application with the WHO Secretariat prior to the World Health Assembly (WHA) deliberations in Geneva in mid-May. WHO regulations requiring 30 days lead time, he explained, had determined the timing of the expected Taiwan application later this week. Chiou emphasized that Taiwan had not given up its pursuit of WHO observership or increasing its meaningful participation in WHO activities, but was seeking one more opportunity "to raise our voices." He also remarked that President Chen wanted "to do something before the end of his term " to respond to domestic demands. (Note: Chiou was aware of ADIR's April 6 meeting with FM James Huang -- Ref B -- but appeared uninformed about the details of the meeting. End Note.) ¶4. (C) ADIR told Chiou that Washington believes this new approach of applying for membership will hurt Taiwan in its pursuit of both more meaningful participation in WHO activities and formal WHO observer status. He stressed that Taiwan pursuit of WHO membership will force the U.S. to publicly oppose it. Chiou responded by again stressing that there is no plan to change Taiwan's name and that Taiwan wants to continue cooperating with the U.S. on efforts to obtain observership and meaningful participation. He stressed that Taiwan does not want to undermine its relationship with the United States. ¶5. (C) ADIR concluded the demarche by urging Taiwan to reconsider its decision and to change course and pursue an approach that the U.S. can support. Chiou promised to convey the message to the President promptly. ¶6. (C) Note. ADIR had presented the demarche to Chiou because FM Huang's availability was unclear in the morning. Subsequently, FM Huang called and requested a copy of the points which we delivered by hand to his office. END NOTE. WANG